Budget and council tax 2022/23
Hampshire County Council’s council tax is the lowest of any county council in England
- £1,390.86
- Our 2022/23 Band D council tax
- £2.4 billion
- The Council’s total budget for 2022/23
Hampshire County Council’s council tax will increase this year by 2.99%. This is significantly less than inflation and the amount we charge is the lowest of any county council in England. One third of the funds raised from the increase will be dedicated to funding pressures in adult social care, with the remainder used to help resource all of the services the Council provides.
The revenue from council tax enables the Council to provide a wide range of high quality services. Some of these are listed alongside, many of which are available to be used by all. The Council continued to provide these during the pandemic, adjusted as necessary to keep people safe and comply with lockdown legislation. As the country gets back to normal, the provision of these is also returning to the usual arrangements. The Council is responsible for providing both public health and adult social care services, so we will continue to carefully monitor Covid and respond as appropriate. We are working with other councils and voluntary organisations as part of our Getting Going Again scheme to help vulnerable people safely return to a more normal way of life.
A significant proportion of the budget is used to provide social care, with the pandemic highlighting the vital nature of these services. The Government’s new Health and Social Care Levy is mainly being used to fund the NHS, so it only funds the cost of new social care policies, such as the planned cap on care costs. Council tax thus has to be used to fund many of the other pressures in social care, such as growing demand caused by the ageing population and recent significant price increases by providers of home and residential care. As well as providing social care for older and younger adults, the Council is also responsible for children’s social care. Our children’s social care services are rated by Ofsted as outstanding.
In addition to providing day to day services, we will continue to invest in Hampshire’s infrastructure to meet demand. To meet the continued need for more school places, £109m will be invested in new and extended school buildings over the next three years, with a further £95m used to maintain existing school buildings to a good standard. The Council maintains 5,500 miles of roads and £136 million is due to be spent on highways maintenance and improvements over the next three years. A further £109m is being invested in new transport infrastructure over the same period, with £50m of this being for walking and cycling improvements. Other investment which will provide environmental benefits includes £30 million for new and upgraded recycling infrastructure.
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 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 |
|---|---|---|
| Gross expenditure | £2,276.9m | £2,391.4m |
| Funded by: | ||
| Departmental income | £308.8m | £319m |
| Interest receivable | £13.0m | £13.9m |
| Dedicated Schools Grant | £877.7m | £916m |
| Other Specific Government grants | £266.8m | £291.3m |
| General Government grants | £74.3m | £69.6m |
| Business rates | £47.8m | £47.8m |
| Surplus / deficit on collection funds | -£18.9m | -£4.3m |
| Council tax requirement | £707.4m | £738.1m |
| Results in: | ||
| Hampshire County Council’s Band D Council Tax | £1,350.45 | £1,390.86 |
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.
2022/23 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.”