Have your say on our draft budget for 2027 to 2028

There are three main parts to our finances: revenue, capital and reserves.

Revenue funding pays for our day-to-day services. It is funded through income including our share of council tax, business rates, fees and charges, and income from commercial property and cash investments.

Unlike many other councils we have a strong commercial property and cash investments portfolio. The income we get from property we own is almost double the amount we get from council tax.

This is where every £10 of our £65.29 million revenue budget would come from:

The amounts relating to each section of the graph are shown in the table below.

The amounts relating to each section of the graph are shown in the table below.

This is how every £10 would be spent on our services:

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.

Careful financial management over many years means the council remains debt-free. Income from our commercial property portfolio also helps us fund services and keep council tax lower than it would otherwise need to be.

But, like councils across the country, we are facing rising costs and growing demand for services. And we also know that households and businesses are dealing with financial pressures of their own.

Our draft budget seeks to strike a balance between protecting valued local services and projects, investing in areas residents have told us matter, keeping council tax comparatively low and fees fair, and maintaining healthy reserves so we are prepared for future challenges.

The proposals include:

• tackling fly-tipping with a new officer to investigate incidents and take action against offenders;
• more resources to make sure developments are built as approved and planning rules are followed;
• improving our allotments, including preparing vacant plots for new tenants more quickly;
• creating a new community partnership to support members of the Armed Forces and their families;
• helping people recycle more plastic with additional mixed plastic recycling banks; and
• investing in maintaining community buildings and assets, including the war memorial in Basingstoke town centre.

Alongside these improvements, we would continue providing the services residents rely on and supporting some of our borough's biggest priorities. That includes plans for a new water and leisure complex at Basingstoke Leisure Park, continuing to support rough sleepers and vulnerable residents, and taking action to nurture nature and tackle climate change.

To help fund this, the budget proposes an average 10p per week council tax increase, which would bring the borough council’s part of a band D household’s council tax bill to £156.42 per year.

Although your council tax is collected by the borough council, the majority of the money goes to other public service providers such as Hampshire County Council, Hampshire and Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue and the Police and Crime Commissioner for Hampshire and Isle of Wight, as well as parish and town councils.

There would also be changes to charges for additional services the borough council provides. Car parking charges already apply on Good Friday and they would begin to apply on other bank holidays, except Easter Sunday and Christmas, with Blue Badge holders continuing to be exempt from all bank holiday parking charges. While fees for processing households’ planning applications would be unaffected, fees for processing others’ planning applications are also proposed to increase. Charges for most other services would increase by an average of 3% to reflect rising costs.

This document provides a summary of revenue proposals in the 2027 to 2028 budget.

We are running a public consultation on the proposals in our draft budget until 11.59pm on Sunday 3 January 2027.

Please share your views during the consultation so they can help to shape the final version of the budget that is considered for approval at Cabinet and Council in February 2027.

You may find these documents useful:

• November 2026 Cabinet report with draft budget for 2027/28
• Proposals for 2027/28 budget
• Fees and charges proposals for 2027/28 budget
• Equality impact assessment of the 2027 to 2028 budget proposals

Respond by using the link below to complete the online survey.

Complete the budget proposals survey

Alternatively, you can email us at customer.service@basingstoke.gov.uk or post a written response to ‘Budget consultation 2027/28, Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council, London Road, Basingstoke, RG21 4AH.

If you need this information in a different format, such as paper copy or large print, please email us customer.service@basingstoke.gov.uk or call 01256 844844.