Bradford Council
The Council has 90 elected members representing 30 wards and employs over 7,000 staff. It provides democratically accountable leadership and more than 200 services to a big, young, and diverse population across 141 square miles - keeping streets clean and safe, maintaining highways and green space, caring for vulnerable residents, supporting families and schools, and helping our economy to grow. The Council leads across systems and places with partners, including Bradford Children and Families Trust (BCFT), our key strategic partner delivering children’s social care.
Council leadership, resources, powers and influence shape the district’s future—harnessing its collective assets, tackling challenges, and unlocking opportunity in one of the UK’s biggest, youngest, and most diverse places.
Core service delivery 2024-25
12 million bins collected
11.760 fly tipping incidents dealt with
37 parks
1,501,871 visits to leisure centres
6,784 children starting school
7,493 education health and care plans
1,643 SEND children taken to school
4,173,432 school meals prepared
7,124 births registered
886 weddings and civil partnerships
9,845 people presenting as homeless or at risk
11,432 potholes repaired
5,386 lamppost lights replaced
2,471 planning applications dealt with
9,442 taxi licences issued
Our Values: Brilliant, Bold and Balanced
Our values drive how we work with, and for, our residents and businesses. Developed by staff from across the Council our values and behaviours set a high expectation for how the Council will work and what our partners and customers can expect of us, the level of performance we aspire to and how all our staff will contribute to that.
Brilliant
We are innovative and inclusive, we aspire to be the best, and lead with courage for our communities.
Bold
We take ownership and act with confidence and integrity to achieve good outcomes.
Balanced
We work collaboratively, managing change well, making evidence‑based decisions to deliver efficient and effective services for our communities.
Financial Context
The Council continues to face significant financial challenges because of many years of underfunding alongside increasing demand for services and the rising cost of providing them, particularly in social care. These factors led to the Council having to enter an Exceptional Financial Support (EFS) agreement with the Government. EFS allows the Council to borrow to help pay for services while working to become financially sustainable, it is not however, the solution to the Council’s financial challenges. This money needs to be repaid so borrowing must be kept to a minimum.
Bradford however is a major beneficiary of the Fair Funding Review which accounts for levels of need and local resources in determining the distribution of funding to local authorities. The promised Local Government Financial Settlements 2026/27 to 2028/29 recognise Bradford’s high levels of deprivation and low resource base and will see the Council’s Core Spending Power increase by 46.9% by 2028/29 compared to 2024/25. This is the highest increase for any Metropolitan authority and will help the Council to sustain services and achieve financial sustainability.
The settlement is a major boost, strengthening the Council’s financial position, helping to reduce the EFS requirement and associated borrowing costs and accelerating our journey to financial sustainability. But taken alone it can’t fix the finances after longstanding challenges and with borrowing continuing to be significant. Achieving a sustainable position by 2028/29 is only possible by delivering savings of £50m in 2027/28 and 2028/29 and £40m a year afterwards. Throughout the lifetime of the Council Plan, the Council must continue to deliver savings, transform services and improve productivity, building on the progress made to date.
Our Improvement Journey
Alongside EFS, the Government issued the Council with a Best Value Notice requiring it to improve and to establish an Independent Advisory Panel to monitor improvement. Considerable progress has been made in addressing this challenge. The Best Value Notice was lifted within a year of being issued. The final report of the Bradford Independent Advisory Panel noted impressive progress in restoring financial stability and recognised the extent to which cultural change is needed across the Council to modernise and transform services. In particular, the report noted that the Council has:
- Developed and is delivering a Medium-Term Financial Strategy to build a sustainable long-term financial position
- Refreshed its commitment to the success of the BCFT and built positive working relationships between the Council and the Trust at different levels of the organisation.
- Made progress to rebuild capacity and capability in Financial Services and the identified need for similar change and improvement within corporate services.
- Established systematic processes to deliver over £90m of reductions in expenditure towards a balanced budget for 24/25 and 25/26 and the Council is already well advanced in identifying robust opportunities for savings packages.
- Has ensured that all members of the Council have the information needed for decision making.
- Made good progress in shaping its approach to service review and transformation and the relationship to financial savings. An Improvement Plan is in place which includes the development of the target operating model. The ongoing capturing and implementation of good practice is part of the Council’s approach to transformation.
- Further developed its commitment to securing growth in the local economy and legacy from a successful year as UK City of Culture which deliver benefits for local people and businesses.
The Panel was impressed by the headway made during 2025 to re-invigorate the city centre which provides tangible evidence of progress and gives confidence in attracting further public and private investment into Bradford. Work continues to deliver the Improvement Plan phases, linked to the delivery of the financial recovery plan.
A report by the Chartered Institute for Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) published in March 2025 said that the Council had established strong financial management processes.
Improvement is now ongoing. The Council has balanced its budget within the confines of EFS, showing a £20m improvement on its forecast out-turn for 2025/26, and by March 2025 had achieved a £40m increase in reserves. The Council has already delivered or is in the process of delivering £90m of efficiencies and has agreed a further £60m. A grip on revenue expenditure through spending control panels is in place, the capital programme is under ongoing review, an asset disposals strategy has been established, and investment is being made in the organisational capacity needed to deliver financial recovery.
The Council will build on its solid progress to date to keep transforming the way it works, improving efficiency and investing in the organisational capacity, culture and design needed to deliver the Council Plan objectives and the partnership ambitions in the District Strategy.