Halton Borough Council: local authority assessment

How we assess local authorities

Assessment published: 4 July 2025

About Halton Borough Council

Demographics

Halton is a unitary authority in the county of Cheshire. Since 2014 Halton has been one of the six local authorities that make up the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority. Halton straddles the river Mersey and is made up of the twin towns of Widnes and Runcorn together with the villages of Hale, Moore, Daresbury and Preston Brook.

Halton is home to nearly 129,000 residents and the population size has increased by 2%, from around 125,700 in 2011 to 128,200 in 2021. This is lower than the overall increase for England (6.6%). The wider trend shows that the population is ageing, as the number of residents who are 65 years and over has increased by 38.5% since 2011.

Less than 5% of Halton’s population is ethnically diverse, with the majority being White (96.50%) and smaller communities identifying as Mixed or multiple ethnicities (1.39%), Asian or Asian British (1.12%), Black, Black British, Caribbean, or African (0.40%), and other ethnicities (0.59%). Halton has an Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) score of 8, placing it in decile 8. A local authority with a decile of 1 means it is in the least deprived group (lowest 10%), while a local authority with a decile of 10 means it is in the most deprived group (highest 10%).

Halton is part of the Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care System (ICS), which includes Liverpool, Wirral, Knowsley, Sefton, Warrington, Cheshire East, St Helens and Cheshire West, essentially encompassing the wider Merseyside region.

Halton Borough Council has had a Labour majority since its creation in 1974 with 50 of the 54 councillors representing the Labour party.

Financial facts

• The local authority estimated that in 2023/24, its total budget would be £233,004,000. Its actual spend for that year was £333,991,000, which was £100,987,000 more than estimated.
• The local authority estimated that it would spend £63,036,000 of its total budget on adult social care in 2023/24. Its actual spend for that year was £68,980,000, which was £5,944,000 more than estimated.
• In 2023/2024, 20.65% of the budget was spent on adult social care.
• The local authority has raised the full adult social care precept for 2023/24, with a value of 2%. Please note that the amount raised through adult social care precept varies from local authority to local authority.
• Approximately 2710 people were accessing long-term ASC support, and approximately 450 people were accessing short-term adult social care support in 2023/24. Local Authorities spend money on a range of adult social care services, including supporting individuals. No two care packages are the same and vary significantly in their intensity, duration, and cost.

This data is reproduced at the request of the Department of Health and Social Care. It has not been factored into our assessment and is presented for information purposes only.