There are three levels of local government in Basingstoke and Deane. This includes services provided by Hampshire County Council, Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council and parish and town councils. This video explains the difference between each council.
Every day, we provide essential services for communities across the borough, including recycling and waste collections, keeping our streets, parks and open spaces clean and well maintained, community safety patrols and supporting those who need extra help.
As a result of carefully managing our finances and an established commercial property and cash investment portfolio, which raises vital income to pay for our services, we are in a position that few other councils are in.
At a time when many other councils are faced with cutting back on services, we are able to invest more money into our key frontline services that residents value. It also allows us to work with partners on ambitious projects for the future of our borough, from the revitalisation of the town centre and renewal of the leisure park to driving forward the delivery of new communities at Manydown.
The Council Plan sets out the key priorities and actions for the council and focuses on three core priorities:
a place where people can have pride in their communities and the borough
a borough where we protect, restore, reconnect and enhance our natural environment
a council that delivers high-quality services for our residents
Every year we are legally required to set a budget which shows how we plan to pay for our services for the following year and beyond to understand and prepare for future financial challenges we will face.
We continue to face challenges, with a backdrop of rising costs, uncertainty around funding from government and inflation. Although we have managed our finances well and are able to deliver more services and activities than most councils, we have a responsibility to spend every penny of our taxpayers money well as we plan for the future.
The proposed budget sets out how we plan to use our resources to deliver our services and support the priorities identified in the draft Council Plan 2023 to 2027 and builds on significant additional investment for our services introduced in our budgets for 2024/25 and 2025/26.
An overview of council funding
There are three main sources of money that we have access to – revenue budget, capital budget and reserves. You can find out more about how we use these budgets below and by watching this animation.
Where we get our money from
In 2025/26, 32.08% of the borough council’s founding for services came from rental income from its property portfolio which is almost double the 16.63% received directly from council tax. The rest of the council’s income for services will come from business rates and charging for services and government grants.
Our revenue budget is the funding that we have to deliver our services and we raise this income in a number of ways including the borough’s share of your annual council tax bill, business rates and fees and charges for additional services.
Unlike many other councils we have a strong commercial property and cash investments portfolio. The income we get from property we own is double the amount we get from council tax. For a closer look on how we raise income, please watch this animation.
What we spend on council services
In 2025/26 the council spent £68.86 million on providing services to residents. In addition the council spent £27.11 million on housing benefit payments which is largely funded by government grants.
Capital funding is used to improve facilities, undertake large scale projects, investments and purchase property, which will provide income to help pay for our services.
We also have to hold funds to help with potential issues that could impact our ability to receive the income that we expect or have to incur additional expenditure. These are called reserves, with some of this money allocated for specific purposes. Reserves cannot be used to fund ongoing spending and are finite. The reserves we currently hold are equivalent to the money we spend on our services for six months.
Our budget proposals for 2026 to 2027
Focusing on the priorities of our residents, businesses and partners following feedback, our budget proposals for 2026/2027 build on significant additional investment in our services from the 2024/2025 and 2025/26 budgets to continue this work.
Our proposals include:
Maintaining significant extra funding introduced in 2024/25 and 2025/26 in our front line services. This included an additional £750,000 to keep the borough’s streets and open spaces clean and well-maintained and an extra £180,000 to improve play areas.
Investing an additional £250,000 per year in our work to keep the borough streets, parks and open spaces clean and well maintained. This includes a dedicated jet washing service, following successful projects in the town centre and other areas.
Additional investment in our planning service to support the co-ordinated delivery and collection of funding for vital infrastructure and to support ongoing work to investigate breaches of planning permissions and conditions.
Funding to develop the council’s use of technology to enable faster response times, as part of our work to improve customers’ experience of accessing services.
Alongside the revenue budget plans, we are continuing to shape proposals for our capital budget for the next year which will be considered by Cabinet and Council in February. Proposals currently being developed include investment in sports pitches and other improvements for Down Grange Sports Complex alongside funding for other tennis and netball courts in the borough and funding to improve community facilities.
To help fund these services, an average 10p per week council tax increase is proposed, bringing the borough’s part of the council tax to £151.42 a year for the average household. This is still likely to make Basingstoke and Deane one of the lowest districts in Hampshire, and most of the country, for council tax.
Charges for additional services the council provides, such as car parking, are also proposed to increase by an average of three per cent to reflect the rising costs to deliver these services.
Over the next four years, we will need to keep looking at new ways to raise additional money each year to pay for our services and address a projected budget gap of £490,000 by 2028/29.
Next steps
The budget consultation has now closed. Councillors will consider all feedback received before finalising the budget for 2026/27 at meetings of Cabinet and Council in February.
