Introduction
Message from the Leader
This guide outlines important information about your Council Tax and Business Rates, and how your money is used to deliver services across Bath & North East Somerset.
This guide outlines our spending plans for 2025 to 2026 together with the charges for town and parish councils, the police and fire services, and the Environment Agency’s levy for flood protection.
Up and down the country, councils are sending out the notice of Council Tax for next year, and of course you will be aware of the financial pressures that councils have been under in recent years.
Bath & North East Somerset Council has not been immune to these pressures – especially in the rising costs of providing care for our children and young people. However, I am pleased to report that we have once again been able to set a balanced budget (as required by law) for the coming financial year, whilst ensuring that we protect as much as possible the excellent, local, front-line services, upon which residents rely. This has been achieved through a combination of very prudent financial planning and best use of our assets.
I am pleased to confirm investment plans which over the next five years will improve Bath and North East Somerset’s infrastructure. For example, we have agreed more than £70 million for house building as well as investment in active travel and transport improvements.
There is also provision to address the rising costs of social care. We are committed to ensuring that these services continue to meet the needs of the most vulnerable in our community.
Our other plans include:
- £125,000 to trial extended hours for the park and ride service
- A £281,000 increase in Clean and Green Funding for rapid response to weeds, graffiti, and litter
- An increase of £87,000 in the School Streets programme to create three School Streets in 2025 to 2026
- £50,000 for extra support to subsided bus services
While we appreciate the pressure on household finances, we have decided to extend the community contribution scheme for 2025-26 Contributing is entirely a matter of choice. Anything you do contribute is separate from your Council Tax, and you can donate more than once. The minimum contribution is £5, and there is no maximum.
The application process for grants is run by us but the money is not used to supplement council services. If you would like to contribute or want more information, visit our web page or type ‘bathnes community contribution’ into your search engine.
If you are struggling with the cost of living, help is available. Please see our dedicated webpages with information about support with food, energy and money.
This is your council, and we are committed to giving you a bigger say in what we do and how we spend your Council Tax money. Over the past year hundreds of people have taken part in our online consultations. They are your chance to have your say on the issues that matter to you, and I can assure you we listen very carefully to your views before making our decisions. To take part in our consultations, please visit our Have your say pages.
Councillor Kevin Guy, Leader of Bath & North East Somerset Council
Council Tax and your bill
Council Tax helps pay for local services provided by the council including education, highways, social care, public health, libraries, recycling and waste collections, street lights and much more. The money you pay also funds the police and fire and rescue services and supports town and parish councils.
The amount of Council Tax you pay is based on the valuation band of your property and any discounts or exemptions you may be entitled to.
Due to increasing demand for services and rising costs caused by inflationary pressures we have increased our share of Council Tax in 2025 to 2026 by 4.99%, including 2% ringfenced for Adult Social Care.
This means the Bath & North East Somerset Council element of the Council Tax for a band D property for 2025 to 2026 is £1,823.06, an increase of £86.64, or £1.67 per week.
With precepts added for the Police and Crime Commissioner, Avon Fire Authority and parishes, the average total Council Tax for a Band D property in 2025 to 2026 is £2,265.80.
Your Council Tax bill explained
Example Council Tax bill 2025 to 2026
Paying your Council Tax
There are several ways you can pay your Council Tax, and you can find out more on our paying your Council Tax webpage.
If you are struggling to pay, please contact our Council Tax team as soon as possible to discuss your options.
Council Tax discounts and exemptions
In some circumstances you may be able to apply for a Council Tax discount or exemption.
Council Tax Support and Housing Benefit enquiries
If you are on a low income, you may be eligible for Council Tax Support. You may be able to apply for this even if you already receive other Council Tax discounts and exemptions.
In 2025/26 we are continuing changes to the Council Tax Support rules for people who receive Universal Credit. If this means that you cannot afford to pay your bill, the Welfare Support team may be able to offer a discretionary payment.
Manage your Council Tax online
You can switch to paperless billing and manage your Council Tax online.
You’ll need your Council Tax account number, which you can find in the top left corner of your bill. During setup, you will also need to answer some security questions. Having your online key to hand will make this process quicker. Your online key can be found on the top right corner of your bill.
If you can't find your account number, you can use our online form to contact us.
Reporting changes in your circumstances
If you receive a discount, exemption or Council Tax Support, any change in your circumstances, including moving out of the property, could affect your entitlement. You have a legal duty to tell us within 21 days or you may incur a penalty charge.
You can use our online form to tell us about a change in your circumstances
Appeals
There are two areas that you can appeal.
Council Tax banding
If you think your house is in an incorrect Council Tax band you should contact the Valuation Office Agency. You still need to pay your Council Tax whilst waiting for the appeal decision.
Council Tax charge
You can appeal if you think you are not liable to pay Council Tax because:
- you are not the owner or resident
- your property is exempt
- you think there has been a mistake in the calculation of your bill
Please contact us to make an appeal.
Precepts (payments for essential services)
Your Council Tax bill also includes precepts for:
- Adult Social Care
- the police
- the fire service
- town and parish councils
Adult Social Care precept
The Adult Social Care precept allows councils who provide social care to adults to charge an additional amount for Council Tax.
The charge is not linked to whether or not taxpayers receive social care services. If you already pay for care services, the precept does not replace these charges.
Emergency Services
In 2025 to 2026 Avon and Somerset Police and Crime Commissioner charges have increased by £14 for an average Band D property. Download or view the leaflet.
Avon Fire Authority have increased their Council Tax charge by £5 for an average Band D property. You can view the details on their website.
Town and parish councils
Town and parish councils across Bath and North East Somerset set their budgets independently, and while the average charge for 2025 to 2026 for a Band D property is £59.11, the charges range from £0 to £188.04.
Business Rates
Business Rates (or non-domestic rates) are taxes paid on non-domestic properties to help towards the cost of local services.
You can find out more about Business Rates on our web pages.
Our budget
For 2025 to 2026 we have set a net budget of £151,708,326. Our share of your Council Tax bill is increasing by 2.99% plus an additional 2% for Adult Social Care, in line with government limits.
The 2025 to 2026 budget also includes £6.70m of additional income, and £7.31m in savings which are designed to deliver a balanced budget.
The pie chart and table below show where we will obtain our funding for 2025 to 2026.
Where the money comes from to pay for all the services
Where money comes from to pay for all the services|
| £19,281,762 | 4% | £18,631,762 |
| £49,708,786 | 10.3% | £47,281,786 |
| £10,900,635 | 2.3% | £10,273,817 |
| £28,864,287 | 5.9% | £27,968,956 |
| £32,462,736 | 6.7% | £30,321,736 |
| £17,903,656 | 3.7% | £17,703,656 |
| £6,154,631 | 1.3% | £5,443,747 |
| £46,217,177 | 9.6% | £35,336,502 |
| £75,788,369 | 15.7% | £62,960,735 |
| £65,860,942 | 13.6% | £62,307,956 |
| £129,389,605 | 26.8% | £120,257,295 |
| £482,532,586 | 100% | £438,487,948 |
The second diagram and the table below it show our revenue budget for 2025 to 2026. This is our gross spend before taking into account income.
Gross spend before taking account of income
Gross spend before taking account of income|
| £66,924,140 | 13.9% | £61,300,686 |
| £75,788,369 | 15.7% | £62,960,735 |
| £114,899,476 | 23.8% | £110,066,683 |
| £10,900,635 | 2.3% | £10,273,817 |
| £10,223,925 | 2.1% | £9,914,730 |
| £26,864,736 | 5.6% | £26,588,453 |
| £24,563,353 | 5.1% | £24,318,566 |
| £13,988,413 | 2.9% | £13,200,063 |
| £24,441,107 | 5.1% | £22,658,868 |
| £6,971,066 | 1.4% | £6,401,066 |
| £42,956,391 | 8.9% | £42,905,419 |
| £64,010,975 | 13.3% | £47,898,862 |
| £482,532,586 | 100% | £438,487,948 |
This final diagram and table below show our full approved capital spend of £76.4 million for 2025 to 2026.
Fully approved capital spend 2025 to 2026
Capital Budget 2025 to 2026: Fully approved spend|
| £20,670,133 | 27% |
| £6,388,676 | 8% |
| £12,631,358 | 17% |
| £10,841,671 | 14% |
| £6,199,664 | 8% |
| £19,681,112 | 26% |
| £76,412,614 | 100% |
Why spending has increased
We have set our net revenue budget for 2025 to 2026 at £151,708,326. This represents an increase of 11.1%. The build-up is shown below.
Net Revenue Budget 2025 to 2026|
| £135,853,777 |
| £3,735,000 |
| £14,437,000 |
| £11,345,000 |
| £349,549 |
| £165,720,326 |
| -£14,012,000 |
| £151,708,326 |
Summary of Band D Council Tax charge
Band D Council Tax charges 2025 to 2026|
| £1,823.06 | 4.99% |
| £293.20 | 5.01% |
| £90.43 | 5.85% |
| £59.11 | 8.78% |
| £2,265.80 | 5.12% |
*This figure includes the Adult Social Care precept.
Our Council Tax Requirement (excluding Police, Fire & Parishes) for 2025 to 2026 is £129,389,605, and including Parishes is £133,584,846.
How your money is spent
Where each £1 of your Council Tax goes in 2025 to 2026|
| 80p |
| 13p |
| 4p |
| 3p |
The following information shows where every £1 of Bath & North East Somerset Council’s Council Tax is spent. This is based on net spend after deducting income generated by services and grants including the Dedicated Schools Grant.
43p
In the past year Adult Social Care facilitated care and support for 2,330 individuals and enabled 840 people to stay safe in the community. 670 people were supported to return home after a stay in a hospital. We supported 1470 people to live independently in their own homes and access a personal budget to give them choice over how their care is provided. 300 people managed their care through a direct payment. In addition, we supported 1450 people who care for a relative or a loved one.
We also directly manage three residential care homes, five extra care housing schemes, and provide home improvement services such as aids and adaptations.
11p
We provide comprehensive weekly kerbside recycling collections, collecting a wide range of recyclable materials from households including:
- food
- glass
- paper and cardboard
- plastics
- small electricals
We collect rubbish every other week from the majority of households and provide a fortnightly collection of garden waste (for a charge). We operate three recycling centres, a reuse shop and nearly 300 communal mini recycling centres for flats. Our waste and recycling materials are taken to our Keynsham Recycling Hub, where some materials are further sorted, before being transported on to end recycling and disposal points. We also provide business waste collection, recycling, and disposal services. In 2023 to 24 we sent for re-use, recycling, or composting almost 59% of all the household waste we dealt with.
5.2p
Each year our Housing team assists around 2,700 households and allocates approximately 735 social housing lettings. Over the past year we have helped 537 households to avoid homelessness and improved 344 properties. We have also delivered 2,470 affordable homes since 2011. Our Public Protection teams play a vital role in encouraging economic prosperity and community wellbeing by the provision of advice, education, and enforcement of appropriate environmental and consumer legislation
31.4p
We ensure school places for around 25,000 pupils in 81 schools and academies locally, and fund home to school transport and support services for schools. We assess, fund, and commission a range of services to meet the needs of children and young people with SEND (special educational needs and disabilities). We also fund and provide children’s centre services and the full range of social care services (assessment, planning and intervention) for more than 1,000 of our most vulnerable young people and care leavers. We commission support services across the third and voluntary sector to support us in meeting the needs of our most vulnerable children, young people, and families. We’ve developed the care leaver exemption and foster carer discount.
5.4p
We are responsible for more than 1,102 kilometres of highway and ensuring our network keeps moving. We develop, maintain, and improve highway infrastructure, deliver sustainable transport solutions, improve safety and manage public rights of way for all forms of transport. Each year we resurface miles of carriageway, ensure gullies are debris free, grit key routes across the district in the winter months, maintain traffic signals, streetlights and manage the traffic network.
We also manage and enforce more than 6,000 parking spaces and three Park & Ride sites, as well as the first Clean Air Zone outside of London. We provide safe transport for over 2,500 school children and work with our partners in the West of England Combined Authority (WECA) to fund non-commercial bus services, community transport schemes, and shared-taxi schemes.
We deal with around 900 building regulations applications and 2,400 planning and listed building applications each year. We develop planning policy framework for the district and make sure we protect what is most valuable to us.
We promote the district as a great location for investment, encouraging regeneration and growth. Last year we provided more than 3277 hours of support to businesses wanting to start, expand or relocate within B&NES. We also provide services to help people start and grow their business successfully and last year we also supported more than 693 residents to gain skills and progress their careers.
4.1p
The balance of 4.1p includes significant income relating to our Commercial Estate and Heritage Services, together with funding for services including:
- libraries
- cemeteries
- recreation
- tourism
- cleansing
- funding capital projects and charges
Parish & town council precepts
The Council Tax charges shown below relate to the charge for the parish council, town council, or Charter Trustee element only.
Parish council, town council, or Charter Trustee element charges|
| £198,266 | £269,138 | £7.85 |
| £29,700 | £47,800 | £61 |
| £124,575 | £135,240 | £112.30 |
| £36,950 | £38,841 | £44.80 |
| £25,519 | £25,519 | £91.74 |
| £5,000 | £5,000 | £21.84 |
| £3,500 | £4,000 | £57.34 |
| £38,500 | £39,500 | £57.02 |
| £23,000 | £23,000 | £46.88 |
| £2,500 | £2,500 | £29.09 |
| £64,468 | £67,093 | £107.11 |
| £9,792 | £9,792 | £89.74 |
| £11,069 | £13,196 | £42.75 |
| £22,000 | £24,000 | £91.03 |
| £14,360 | £14,714 | £74.01 |
| £12,506 | £15,000 | £61.20 |
| £16,000 | £16,800 | £49.94 |
| £10,000 | £12,510 | £84.87 |
| £35,000 | £60,500 | £114.63 |
| £14,333 | £14,692 | £44.44 |
| £38,103 | £39,160 | £118.81 |
| £39,000 | £40,500 | £46.62 |
| £11,458 | £12,071 | £84.18 |
| £19,812 | £20,264 | £83.00 |
| £2,500 | £2,500 | £28.17 |
| £758,038 | £849,002 | £118.41 |
| £10,500 | £10,500 | £54.18 |
| £558,734 | £613,907 | £147.91 |
| £12,893 | £13,661 | £71.81 |
| £6,100 | £6,693 | £59.67 |
| £10,177 | £11,043 | £142.03 |
| £0 | £0 | £0 |
| £4,000 | £4,000 | £35.72 |
| £301,776 | £326,985 | £152.03 |
| £337,995 | £362,271 | £167.08 |
| £7,829 | £8,768 | £67.29 |
| £25,000 | £28,159 | £55.86 |
| £309,445 | £335,811 | £188.04 |
| £56,320 | £59,417 | £32.44 |
| £11,048 | £11,380 | £63.08 |
| £19,450 | £23,398 | £61.35 |
| £750 | £750 | £15.77 |
| £19,694 | £19,372 | £59.18 |
| £28,000 | £35,000 | £50.60 |
| £4,000 | £4,000 | £29.39 |
| £42,769 | £44,000 | £80.51 |
| £102,000 | £107,100 | £109.86 |
| £15,455 | £16,600 | £89.72 |
| £16,040 | £16,842 | £64.94 |
| £12,750 | £13,752 | £57.37 |
| £240,802 | £274,500 | £142.74 |
| £43,680 | £45,000 | £64.69 |
| £3,763.156 | £4,195,241 | |
Town and parish councils spending more than £140,000 are required to provided more detailed information on their budgets:
Other levies on us
Wessex Regional Flood and Coastal Committee charge a levy on us of £268,384 for the coming year. This is an increase from 2024 to 2025 of £6,313. View their demand letter.
If you need further advice or are unable to print this document and require a hard copy, you can contact us using our online form.
