Budget and council tax 2021/22
Hampshire County Council’s council tax is the third lowest of any county council in England
- £1,350.45
- Our 2021/22 Band D council tax
- £170 million
- Cost of responding to Covid last year
Hampshire County Council has been extremely busy providing vital services during the Covid pandemic. The Council is responsible for both adult social care and public health services. Significant extra resources have been put into these, focused on protecting those most vulnerable to Covid. The Council has also kept its other services going, such as keeping roads maintained. Some services have had to temporarily change, such as schools and libraries being required to close during lockdowns, but online alternatives were provided. Our response will continue for as long as it is needed. The impact of Covid will cost the Council over £170 million in the 2020/21 financial year and further costs will be incurred in 2021/22. The Council has received a significant amount of Government funding towards these costs but not enough yet to fully cover them.
Council tax will therefore need to increase this year to help fund these costs, as well as to resource the pressures still faced by services when life has returned to normal. Demand grows every year for social care services due to factors such as an ageing population, with a large amount of our budget used to provide social care to vulnerable adults and children. Hampshire County Council’s council tax will increase by 4.99% in 2021/22 but the amount we charge will be the third lowest of any county council in England. Three fifths of the increase will be dedicated to helping fund pressures in adult social care. The remainder will be used to help support all of the services we provide.
We will use the funds we receive from council tax and other sources to continue to provide high quality services, such as those listed alongside, many of which are available to be used by all. In addition to providing day to day services, we will continue to invest in Hampshire’s infrastructure to meet demand. This includes spending £68 million on new and extended school buildings over the next three years to meet the need for more school places, enabling over 18,000 more places to be provided by September 2024. The Council maintains 5,500 miles of roads and £118 million is due to be spent on maintenance and improvements over the next three years. We continue to recognise the need to respond to the climate change emergency and successfully applied for £30 million of funding from the Government’s Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme. This will be used to fund schemes which reduce carbon emissions, such as making school buildings more energy efficient.
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 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 |
|---|---|---|
| Gross expenditure | £2,146.1m | £2,276.9m |
| Funded by: | ||
| Departmental income | £283.4m | £308.8m |
| Contribution from reserves | £4.9m | £0.0m |
| Interest receivable | £13.4m | £13.0m |
| Dedicated Schools Grant | £813.4m | £877.7m |
| Other Specific Government grants | £235.6m | £266.8m |
| General Government grants | £74.3m | £74.3m |
| Business rates | £47.7m | £47.8m |
| Surplus / deficit on collection funds | £3.2m | -£18.9m |
| Council tax requirement | £670.2m | £707.4m |
| Results in: | ||
| Hampshire County Council’s Band D Council Tax | £1,286.28 | £1,350.45 |
About this summary
The information on this webpage 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 and Isle of Wight 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.
2021/22 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 webpage.
“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.”
