Lanarkshire residents will learn the cost of their 2025-2026 council tax bills when the area’s two local authorities set their budgets later this month.
North Lanarkshire’s elected members will balance the books of their £870 million budget for the new financial year at a meeting on Thursday, February 20, with leader Jim Logue saying in December that despite a £56.3m funding increase for the 12 months ahead, the council faced “a revenue budget gap of £13.39m”.
South Lanarkshire is still to confirm a date for its annual budget-setting meeting. The council’s website currently shows full assemblies of its 64 councillors scheduled for both February 19 and 26, with one of those dates likely to be when Scotland’s fifth-largest council agrees its £805.8m budget.
Council tax was frozen nationally for the current financial year following a surprise announcement by then-First Minister Humza Yousaf.
South Lanarkshire imposed a 5.5 per cent rise at its 2023 budget meeting with North Lanarkshire raising the cost by five per cent in the same year, the largest rises after four increases in the five years since the end of a long-term national freeze.
Band D charges are currently £1320.78 in North Lanarkshire and £1300.81 per year in South Lanarkshire – with Scottish Water charges also then being added for all householders to produce the final council tax bill, and the utility provider has already announced its rise for the year ahead.
Scottish Water will increase bills by 9.9 per cent for 2025-26, with officials saying: “Average monthly household bills will rise by £3.68 per month or £44 per year from April 1, equivalent to 85p a week.”
Combined water and waste water charges for the current year listed on South Lanarkshire Council’s website range from £303.55 for band A properties to £1092.78 for those in band H. Officials say that 52 per cent of Scotland’s 2.6m households receive financial support with the bills.
Alex Plant, who is Scottish Water’s chief executive, said: “People in Scotland are rightly proud of our water, and maintaining our high standards means we need long-term sustainable investment.
“We’ve all seen how weather conditions in Scotland are becoming more extreme, and we are seeing more frequent periods of both drought and intense rainfall – this puts our current infrastructure under significant pressure, and without increased investment, we risk reductions in service quality.
“This announcement will enable us to continue to provide essential high-quality services to millions of people today, while also investing prudently for the future, and ensuring that costs are shared fairly between current and future generations.”
Scottish Water’s climate change action plan “highlights that Scotland’s current supply deficit during drought could increase from 60 to 240m litres a day with more sustained low rainfall periods anticipated, [and] customers could experience more water main bursts by 2050 due to much drier ground conditions and consequent ground movement”.
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