Guide to Council Tax 2025/26

Your Council Tax is collected by Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council, but the money you pay helps to fund a number of services provided by other public service authorities in your area. The breakdown of how much of your Council Tax goes to each service provider is shown on your bill.

The full bill for a band D property in an area without a parish or town council would be £2,119.55, broken down as shown below:

Local authority referendums and increases shown on Council Tax bills

For 2025/26 any increases in the Council Tax by Basingstoke and Deane or a major preceptor (for example Hampshire County Council, fire and police) that are equal to or more than the relevant referendum threshold set by the Government, will trigger a local referendum.

Please note that for billing purposes only the percentage increase shown on the bill is rounded to one decimal place. For example, 2.99% will be shown as 3.0%.

How much is our share of your Council Tax?

Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council's share of Council Tax pays for a range of local services, including recycling and waste collections, community safety, housing services, street cleaning, maintaining the borough’s parks and play areas, environmental health, licensing, leisure activities, sport, culture and the arts.

Households in the borough living in an area without a parish and town council will pay £146.42 Council Tax at band D for services provided by the borough council - that is 40p per day.

Those living in rural areas may pay an additional sum to cover the services provided by their town or parish council. If this applies to you, details of the amount your parish council required to be raised through Council Tax will be shown on your bill.

Significant investment in frontline services as part of 10p a week Council Tax rise for 2025/26

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

As a result of carefully managing our finances and an established commercial property and cash investment portfolio, which raises more than double the amount of income as Council Tax to help pay for our services, we are in a position that few other councils are in. This is despite falling government funding, increasing costs to deliver our services alongside increased demand for them and the impact of partner organisations.

Focusing on the priorities of our residents, businesses and partners following feedback, our budget for 2025/2026 builds on significant additional investment in our services agreed as part of the 2024/25 budget and includes funding for a number of new initiatives. To help fund this, our share of your Council Tax bill will only increase by 10p per week for the average household as part of a balanced package of measures.

To address a projected budget gap of £2.90 million by 2028/29, we will continue to look at savings and new ways of raising additional money to help pay for our services.

Alongside the services that we provide, we continue to invest in major projects and other improvements in the borough. The capital programme for 2025/26 will see over £28 million allocated for a number of projects including Manydown, redevelopment of the Leisure Park, the introduction of food waste collection as well as investing in improvements to parks, play areas, sports facilities and community buildings.

All of these measures will mean that we are able to continue to invest in communities across the borough and to spend one of the highest amounts per head on services of all districts, despite having the lowest Council Tax levels in Hampshire.

Spending on our services

There are reasons other than inflation why our budget and therefore the amount required from Council Tax has to change such as investment in services. For 2025/26 our Council Tax requirement is £10,253,109. This is broken down as shown below:

Where do we get the money from to fund the services?

The services we provide for the borough are not just paid for by the Council Tax. The total funding is shown below:

What this means for a band D Council Tax payer

Most of the information given in this guide refers to Council Tax in a band D property in an area without a parish or town council. The total charge for the borough council for a band D Council Tax payer is shown below:

To find out your Council Tax charge for this year and for previous years visit our webpage

Capital spending

As well as day-to-day costs, the council also spends money on assets with a lasting value (for example, new buildings, major maintenance work and vehicles). This is known as capital spending.

The table below shows planned expenditure on major schemes included in the council’s capital programme for 2025/26. This investment will create new facilities or improve, or look after, existing ones for the people of the borough.

Want to know more?

If you want to find out more about the council's plans and finances, all are available on our website, by selecting the links below:

• The Council Plan - outlining the council's future priorities and plans
• The Medium Term Financial Strategy - how the council plans to use its resources to support the Council Plan priorities and plans
• The Statement of Accounts - detailing our past financial performance

You can request copies by:

• completing Contact us form
• emailing customer.service@basingstoke.gov.uk
• calling 01256 844844
• visiting Civic Offices in London Road, Basingstoke, RG21 4AH