Westminster City Council: local authority assessment

Published: 8 November 2024 Page last updated: 8 November 2024

Assessment published: 8 November 2024

About Westminster City Council

Demographics

Westminster is situated in the centre of London, covering 8.29 square miles. Westminster is home to a resident population of over 205,087. The population grows to over one million each day with a commuting workforce and visitors from all over the world, particularly in the centre of the Borough in places like the West End, Parliament, the Royal Palaces and Parks. Westminster has an Index Multiple Deprivation score of 5 (with 10 being the highest and most deprived) and is rated 87^th out of 152 (1^st being most deprived).

Approximately 13% of the population are children aged under 18, 75% are of working age 18-64 and 12% are over 65 years. Westminster has one of the most diverse populations in the London Boroughs, with the highest international migration and over 45% of people are from ethnic minority groups.

Westminster has the highest life expectancy for men in England (85 years) and the third highest for women (87 years). However, there are major health inequalities between different parts of Westminster, which has some of the country’s most deprived areas, where males in the most and least deprived areas have a life expectancy gap of 18 years and women 9 years.

Together with 7 other London Boroughs, Westminster is part of the NHS Northwest London integrated care system.

Westminster Adult Social Care and Health operates as a Bi-Borough service with The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC). Westminster and RBKC shares the Hospital social work service and emergency duty team with the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham.

In May 2022 Westminster became a Labour-led council.

Financial facts

The Financial Facts for Westminster City Council are:

The local authority estimated that in 2022/23, its total budget would be £363,119,000. Its actual spend for that year was £386,922,000, which was £23,803,000 more than estimated.
The Local Authority estimated that it would spend £77,633,000 of its total budget on adult social care in 2022/23. Its actual spend for that year was £84,003,000, which is £6,370,000 more than estimated.
In 2022/23, 22% 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 3,535 people were accessing long-term adult social care support, and approximately 1,060 people were accessing short-term adult social care support in 2022/23. 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.