Calderdale faces tough budget choices. We’re making council finances easier to understand.

As Reform sets out its priorities, CIO’s new Council Money dashboard lets residents explore budgets and published payments for themselves. Free to all registered members.

Unless you’ve been living an off-grid-Hermit-like existence, you can’t help notice local authorities across the UK have an existential cash-crisis. 

Calderdale is no different, and this week our local council was warning of a £18.7 million funding gap by 2029/30 – there are rising costs in social care, children’s services, and SEN provision  - all “have to fund” items (that’s the law). Every penny counts, and this week Calderdale Council Cabinet are meeting to discuss next year’s budget priorities.

And that’s why we are launching a brand-new journalistic initiative we’ve been quietly working on for the past few weeks.

Transparency is key in a vibrant and accountable democracy – and our new financial dashboard enables Calderdale residents to access budget information and published payment records in a format that anyone without accounting knowledge (or a degree in spreadsheets) can access in an easy to read/search format.

The new Reform administration has placed value for money at the centre of its electoral promises, and we know there are ongoing investigations into how cash has been spent. Council-run Stage At The Lake’s financial failure and payments to the Piece Hall are all under the microscope. And our recent investigation into the findings of a secret internal audit report highlighted many issues including failure to keep an eye what was being delivered to site on major projects like the £64m Halifax Town Centre improvement scheme.

Reform’s corporate plan promises closer scrutiny of resources and progress against their priorities, so we thought helping that process of accountability would be, well, useful.

Calderdale Inside Out has built 'Council Money' to make council finances easier to explore.

Starting with the overall council budget you can track what’s been spent on key services. You can search for a supplier or organisation by name, or browse payments by service if you don’t know who to look for. We’ve even ensured detailed budget entries, explanations of unfamiliar terms and links to the original evidence.

We are working on building all available payment details going back five years, but this first edition covers 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026, including 68,458 published payment records.

The dashboard also explains limitations A planned budget is different from money spent. Published supplier payments exclude employee pay and benefits, and cannot be added up to establish the full cost of a service. A payment alone does not tell us whether something delivered value for money. 

The underlying data is already public. CIO’s contribution is to make it easier to find, understand and question.