How we spend your Council Tax
Everyone wants to know they get value for money, and that includes from your Council Tax.
Your council is committed to clearly demonstrate exactly that, through clear and accessible information that shows how we invest Council Tax to deliver council services and support local communities.
South Lanarkshire Council’s budget for 2026-27 was approved on 25 February 2026.
The agreement included a 6.5% rise in Council Tax, which was one of the lowest increases introduced by any council in Scotland this year.
It also maintained Council Tax rates in South Lanarkshire as the lowest anywhere in Scotland. In fact, Council Taxes here are more than 13% lower than the Scottish average.
South Lanarkshire is one of Scotland’s largest councils and in 2026-27 we will spend more than £1 billion on general services delivered on behalf of our residents.
Our biggest area of spend once again will be on providing education services, and full details of how we deliver our services and invest in the local area can be found in our Council Tax financial information 2026-27 section.
However, to summarise, in a typical year we will spend our budget on:
- teaching more than 24,878 primary pupils
- teaching more than 20,944 secondary school pupils
- providing 8,334 Early Learning and childcare places
- caring for 3,808 older people and adults at home
- looking after more than 1,774 older people in care homes
- collecting waste every week from more than 159,000 households
- maintaining 2,295km (1,426 miles) of roads
We also have a General Services Capital Programme for 2026-27 that will see the council invest £105.247 million on long-term investments in the area, including on roads improvements and further upgrades to our excellent schools. A further £90.434 million has been approved for this year’s Housing Capital Programme.