Wiltshire Council: local authority assessment

Published: 29 January 2025 Page last updated: 29 January 2025

Assessment published: 29 January 2025

About Wiltshire Council

Demographics

Wiltshire Council is a large unitary authority with a population of around 510,430 people. There has been an 8.4% rise in the population over the last 10 years. The local authority is made up of mostly rural areas. The population has an Index of Multiple Deprivation score of 2 (1 is the least deprived, 10 is the most deprived) meaning it is one of the least deprived local authorities in England. There are some areas of deprivation within Wiltshire, most prominently in Trowbridge, Chippenham, Melksham and Salisbury.

Around half of Wiltshire Council’s communities live in towns and villages with fewer than 5000 residents, and a quarter live in villages with fewer than 1000 residents. Wiltshire has the largest military settlement nationally. Of 28,835 households, at least 1 person has previously served in the Armed Forces, equating to 13.4% of all households.

The population is mostly white British. People from ethnic minority groups comprise less than 6.6% of the Wiltshire population, predominantly people of Moroccan and Polish heritage and a smaller community of people with Gypsy, Romany, Traveller and Boater heritage. ‘Boater’ is a term for people who live in boats, which is used in Wiltshire to describe this community.

Wiltshire has a larger population aged 65 and over, than the England average (18.61%) and smaller population than the England average aged 18-64 (60.57%) and under 18 (20.82%).

Wiltshire is part of the NHS Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire Integrated Care System (known as BSW Together). There are 13 Primary Care Networks, and 46 GP surgeries located in Wiltshire. It is bordered by six counties.

Wiltshire Council has remained politically stable with consistent governance by the Conservative Party since 2000.

Financial facts

The local authority estimated that in 2023/24, its total budget would be £791,878,000. Its actual spend for that year was £705,443,000 which was £86,435,000 less than estimated.

The local authority estimated that it would spend £234,189,000 of its total budget on adult social care in 2023/24. Its actual spend was £176,563,000, which is £57,626,000 less than estimated.

In 2023/2024, 25.03% 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 ASC precept varies from local authority to local authority.

Around 6345 people were accessing long-term adult social care support, and about 650 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.