Metropolitan Borough of Wirral: local authority assessment

How we assess local authorities

Assessment published: 22 January 2025

About Metropolitan Borough of Wirral 

Demographics

The Metropolitan Borough of Wirral is a peninsula with a population of 320,000. Wirral had an older population than the rest of England, with those aged 65 years and over making up 22% of the population, compared to 18.4% in the rest of England. There was an increase of 15.5% in people aged 65 years and over from 2011 to 2021, and a decrease of 3.9% of people aged 18-64.

There was significant deprivation in Wirral with the council having a multiple deprivation score of 7, meaning it was more than midway between the most deprived and least deprived in England. 35.8% of the total population were living in an area defined as the 20% most deprived areas of England. In tandem with this there was high inequality in life expectancy which was an important marker for the underlying health inequalities of the population. For example, males in Birkenhead and Tranmere were expected to live 70.4 years whereas males in Greasby, Frankby and Irby lived on average 83 years.

In 2021 there were 15,507 residents identifying as black, asian and minority ethnic (4.8% of the total population) which was proportionately less than the rest of the north-west (14.4%) and nationally (18%). The average rate of change in the city region was faster than the national average with an increase of 154% (23,000) of people in the population that identified as black between 2011 and 2021.

Wirral is located within the NHS Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care Board (ICB) for the region.

The council was run on a committee system, with the majority party (Labour) sharing decision making through committees aligned to portfolios. The majority party chairs the committees, and the committee chairs attended the leader’s committee that oversees them. The leader of the council and committee chairs were all Labour.

Financial facts

The financial facts for the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral are:

• The Local Authority estimated that in 2022/23 its total budget would be £502,625,000. Its actual spend for that year was £588,006,000 which was £85,381,000 more than estimated.
• The Local Authority estimated that it would spend £119,164,000 of its total budget on adult social care in 2022/23. Its actual spend was £126,596,000, which was £6,832,000 more than estimated.
• In 2022/23, 22% of the budget was spent on adult social care.
• The Local Authority had raised the full adult social care precept for 2023/24, with a value of 2%.
• In 2022/23 approximately 8855 people were accessing long-term adult social care support, and approximately 840 people were accessing short-term adult social care support. 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.