Council budget

What our council budget is

The council budget sets out how much we intend to spend over the financial year, which runs from 1 April to 31 March.

The council’s budget is divided into 2 main areas - revenue and capital.

The revenue budget pays for the day-to-day services - similar to your household bills - things that always require funding. Some examples include waste services, transport, environment services, the day-to-day running of schools, and social care services.

The capital budget is money that can only be used once for long term investments. New or upgraded roads, schools, building extensions, new play parks are just some examples of capital projects. These are one off investments, and they are not reoccurring costs.

At the council budget meeting in February, any change to the rate of council tax, service charges and housing rent is also agreed. 

Where our money comes from

The council receives money from a variety of sources, including government grants, taxes, and income from fees and charges.

78% of our budget comes from the Scottish Government Grant and, in some cases, has conditions attached to it (ring-fenced), so we must spend it on Scottish Government priorities.    

Council tax makes up approximately 21% of the council's budget and is spent delivering local services.

The rest (1%) comes from income from fees and charges. This is money raised locally from services such as leisure facilities, parking charges, and waste uplift charges.

How we set our budget

Each year, by law, we must set a balanced budget. That means the amount we expect to spend is no more than the amount of money we expect to receive.

Setting the budget is a process of balancing many factors and this is becoming increasingly challenging as demand for our services grows at the same time as the cost of materials, fuel and energy continues to rise.  

As a council we have made savings of around £190million since 2010 by transforming services and working smarter to ensure we can continue to invest in Renfrewshire to make it a great place for everyone who lives, learns, plays, and works here.

During 2025, we carried out research with Renfrewshire residents to find out how you feel about where you live, the services the council provides, and changes that could be made to services in the future.

You told us that you rate Renfrewshire highly as a place to live and are proud of your own neighbourhood. You told us about the services you use and how you feel about them – with schools and nurseries, children’s play areas, parks, gardens and open spaces and libraries also receiving high satisfaction scores.

You also told us that when it comes to help balancing our budget, the council should prioritise making better use of its buildings and target resources to places and people with the greatest need.

We listened as you told us your essential priorities - supporting our older and vulnerable people, supporting our children and families, and maintaining our roads, open and public spaces.

Your feedback has shaped this year’s budget priorities.  

What we spend it on

Some of the services we provide are statutory and some are non-statutory services, and we must consider this when agreeing the council's priorities and budget setting process.

Statutory services are those services which we must provide by law. This includes areas such as education, most household waste collections, social care services, social housing, registrars, cemeteries, road maintenance, and environmental health.

Non-statutory services, or discretionary services as they are also known, are those services we provide because we know how important to residents and communities they are for a good quality of life, but we do not have to provide by law. These include services such as garden waste collections and bulky uplifts, culture, sport and leisure facilities, litter picking, grass cutting services, and parks. 

About 2 thirds of our budget is ring-fenced and must be spent on children's and adult services including:

• running our schools
• looking after children and young people in care
• supporting people with disabilities and mental health issues
• supporting and providing care for vulnerable older people
• for Renfrewshire Health and Social Care Partnership (RHSCP) to provide adult social care. 

The rest supports services for everyone, like:

• waste collection
• street cleaning and lighting
• roads, footways, and parks
• outdoor spaces and caring for our local environment
• ensuring our neighbourhoods are safe, clean, and green. 

We also provide funds for OneRen to operate Renfrewshire's libraries, museums, and sports facilities.

We have a separate budget which covers our council housing services as landlord to more than 11,000 households.