Understanding your council tax bill
The amount of council tax you pay in 2021/22 will depend on:
- The council tax band for your property
- Whether you are entitled to any discounts, exemptions or relief on the full bill
Your council tax helps to fund local services, such as social care for vulnerable people; and support for children, young adults and elderly people. It also pays for waste and recycling, schools, libraries, leisure centres, street cleaning and much more.
A government body called the Valuation Office Agency decides which band your property is in. Most of the money we will collect will be spent on local council services.
However, we collect some of it for other organisations to pay for services that will benefit the whole of North Northamptonshire such as Police and Fire Services. We also collect money on behalf of town and parish councils where this applies. This will be shown on your bill.
Example breakdown for council tax band D:
- North Northamptonshire Council: £1374.66
- Adult Social Care: £158.24
- Fire: £268.04
- Police: £63.20
- Total: £1,864.14
Please note, band D is the amount for the average council tax payer. Town and Parish Councils may levy a separate amount called a precept that may form part of your council tax bill.
Expenditure
- Enabling and Support Services: 4% £10.436 million
- Transformation, Customer Service and ICT: 5% £13.887 million
- Corporate Costs including Cost of Capital: 8% £23.950 million
- Place and Economy: 19% £55.783 million
- HR, Legal, Democratic Services: 2% £7.244 million
- Adults, Communities, Wellbeing: 41% £120.854 million
- Children’s & Education: 21% £60.351 million
- Total Net Expenditure: £292.505 million
Resources
- Council Tax: 58% £169.668 million
- Business Rates: 18% £53.324 million
- Grants and other external funding: 15% £42.171 million
- Use of Reserves: 9% £27.342 million
- Total Resources: £292.505 million
Note: Use of Reserves includes £21.5 million from the business rates reserve, funded from grant, to meet reliefs given in 2020/21 (the reliefs affect the Council’s budget the year after payment) and a carry forward of grant funding to support the Council’s response to COVID-19.
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. For 2021/22 this was approved on 10 February 2021. The government introduced legislation and guidance setting out how the Adult Social Care precept is calculated and shown on Council Tax bills.
North Northamptonshire Council has approved a 3.0% increase to Adult Social Care precept in 2021-22. The Adult Social Care increase for 2021/22 is calculated based on the total North Northamptonshire Council charges for 2020/21 (previously Northamptonshire County Council and district/boroughs) (in this example Band D, £1460.04). Adult Social Care Precept percentage change is calculated as follows:
- £1,460.04 x 3% = £43.80.
This amount is then added to the 2020/21 Adult Social Care Precept of £114.44 as this is an accumulated charge:
- £114.44 (last year's Adult Social Care charge) + £43.80 (this year's increase) = £158.24 (2021/22 Adult Social Care Precept).
| Council Tax Band | 2016-17 Adult Social Care Precept increase @ 2% | 2017-18 Adult Social Care Precept increase @ 3% | 2018-19 Adult Social Care Precept increase @ 3% | 2019 to 2020 Adult Social Care Precept increase @ 0% | 2020 to 2021 Adult Social Care Precept increase @ 2% | 2021 to 2022 Adult Social Care Precept increase @ 3% | Total Cumulative Adult Social Care Precept |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | £14.25 | £22.23 | £23.33 | £0 | £16.48 | 29.20 | £105.49 |
| B | £16.63 | £25.93 | £27.22 | £0 | £19.23 | 34.07 | £123.08 |
| C | £19.01 | £29.64 | £31.10 | £0 | £21.97 | 38.93 | £140.66 |
| D | £21.38 | £33.34 | £35.00 | £0 | £24.72 | 43.80 | £158.24 |
| E | £26.13 | £40.75 | £42.78 | £0 | £30.21 | 53.53 | £193.40 |
| F | £30.88 | £48.16 | £50.56 | £0 | £35.70 | 63.27 | £228.57 |
| G | £35.63 | £55.57 | £58.33 | £0 | £41.20 | 73.00 | £263.73 |
| H | £42.76 | £66.68 | £70.00 | £0 | £49.44 | 87.60 | £316.48 |
The Environment Agency has applied a local levy to provide funding for local priorities and contributions for partnership funding the Regional Flood and Coastal Committees totalling £1,731,771 for 2021/22. This was £1,714,625 in 2020/21.
The Environment Agency has powers in respect of flood and coastal erosion risk management for 1314km, 2292km, 2486km and 5200km of main river and along tidal and sea defences in the area of the Anglian Gt. Ouse Regional Flood and Coastal Committee, Anglian Northern Regional Flood and Coastal Committee, Severn & Wye Regional Flood and Coastal Committee, and Thames Regional Flood and Coastal Committee respectively.
Money is spent on the construction of new flood defence schemes, the maintenance of the river system and existing flood defences together with the operation of a flood warning system and management of the risk of coastal erosion.
Unlike larger authorities, they have no caps on what they can increase their demand by. For more information on your Parish Council's budget and plans, please visit their own respective websites or contact them directly.