Budget and council tax 2020/21
Hampshire County Council’s council tax continues to be the second lowest of any county council in England
- £1,286.28
- Our 2020/21 Band D council tax
- £80 million
- Savings we need to make by April 2021
Hampshire County Council’s council tax will increase by 3.99% in 2020/21 but will remain the second lowest of any county council in England. Just over half of the amount raised from the increase will be used to help fund pressures in adult social care. The remainder will be used to help support all of the services we provide.
We will continue to use the funds we receive from council tax and other sources to provide high quality services, such as those listed alongside. Many of these are available to all, although as shown in the charts below a large amount of our budget is used to provide social care to vulnerable adults and children. Demand for social care will continue to grow over the coming years due to factors such as the ageing population. This increasing demand, together with the effect of inflation on costs and Government grants remaining constrained, means that the Council still has to make £80 million of further savings by April 2021.
In addition to providing day to day services, we will continue to invest in Hampshire’s infrastructure to meet demand. This includes spending £95 million on new and extended school buildings over the next three years to meet the need for more school places. We maintain 5,500 miles of roads, with £116 million due to be spent on maintenance and improvements over the next three years. £5 million of additional funding has been put into this year’s budget to repair more potholes. We also recognise the need to respond to the climate change emergency, which we are working on addressing through a range of measures. This includes changing how we do things, such as using additional electric vehicles and making street lighting more energy efficient, as well as building more cycling infrastructure and investing an initial £2 million in new schemes to reduce our carbon emissions.
You may notice that Hampshire County Council’s total council tax is split into two separate lines on council tax bills. This is because Government legislation requires the adult social care precept (which is the part of council tax used to fund adult social care pressures) to be shown separately. More information about the adult social care precept and how council tax is calculated.
What the budget will be spent on
The services we provide include:
- adult social care
- children’s social care
- concessionary bus travel
- economic development
- libraries
- public health
- road maintenance
- schools
- trading standards
- waste disposal
Council tax amounts for property bands
How the budget is funded
| Item | 2019/20 | 2020/21 |
|---|---|---|
| Gross expenditure | £1,991.4m | £2,146.1m |
| Funded by: | ||
| Departmental income | £259.9m | £283.4m |
| Contribution from reserves | £5.0m | £4.9m |
| Interest receivable | £10.4m | £13.4m |
| Dedicated Schools Grant | £764.2m | £813.4m |
| Other Specific Government grants | £192.9m | £235.6m |
| General Government grants | £73.2m | £74.3m |
| Business rates | £46.3m | £47.7m |
| Surplus on collection funds | £3.7m | £3.2m |
| Council tax requirement | £635.8m | £670.2m |
| Results in: | ||
| Hampshire County Council’s Band D Council Tax | £1,236.87 | £1,286.28 |
About this summary
The information on this web page is about the Hampshire County Council part of council tax. Your council tax bill will also include amounts for the Police and Crime Commissioner for Hampshire, Hampshire Fire and Rescue Authority, the district council and, in many areas, a parish or town council.
Environment Agency levies
Hampshire County Council pays a levy to the Environment Agency to help fund the construction and maintenance of flood and coastal defences.
2020/21 budgets – Southern, Thames and Wessex regional flood and coastal committees
Government information about the adult social care precept
The Government requires all councils with adult social care responsibilities to publish the text below on their council tax information web page.
“The Secretary of State made an offer to adult social care authorities. (“Adult social care authorities” are local authorities which have functions under Part 1 of the Care Act 2014, namely county councils in England, district councils for an area in England for which there is no county council, London borough councils, the Common Council of the City of London and the Council of the Isles of Scilly.)
The offer was the option of an adult social care authority being able to charge an additional “precept” on its council tax without holding a referendum, to assist the authority in meeting its expenditure on adult social care from the financial year 2016-17. It was originally made in respect of the financial years up to and including 2019-20. If the Secretary of State chooses to renew this offer in respect of a particular financial year, this is subject to the approval of the House of Commons.”
