Your Council Tax explained

Contents

• Who pays Council Tax?
• How council tax is shared out
• How we set your Council Tax
• What are the significant changes?
• Council Tax requirement for all area services
• Who does what?
• More information about other services
• Your Council Tax by Parish & Town 2026/27
• Empty Dwelling Discounts & Charges
• Council Tax banding and appeals
• Help to pay - Council Tax
• Council Tax Reduction - What is changing?

Who pays Council Tax?

Council Tax payment is the responsibility of owner-occupiers or, if rented the Landlords and tenants, private tenants/Local Council and housing association tenants.

The person(s) liable to pay must be over 18 years of age. Whoever comes first in the following list is the person(s) liable to pay:-

1. A freeholder who lives in the property.
2. A leaseholder who lives in the property.
3. A tenant who lives in the property.
4. Someone with a licence to live in the property.
5. Any other person (including squatters).
6. If nobody lives in the property, the owner must pay Council Tax. The owner is the freeholder or tenant. For a tenant to be classed as the owner they must hold a material interest in the property which means they must hold a tenancy agreement for a term of at least 6 months.

In some circumstances the owner (not the residents) is liable for council tax:

• Care homes and certain hostels providing care and support
• Houses of religious communities
• Houses in Multiple Occupation
• Second homes with domestic servants
• Residences of ministers of religion
• Accommodation provided to an asylum seeker (under s95 immigration and Asylum Act 1999

Council Tax is also due on empty properties (unoccupied and unfurnished) and properties that are furnished but unoccupied (second homes).

The amount of Council Tax for each household depends on the valuation band a property has been placed in by the Government's Valuation Office Agency, contact them directly if you feel the Valuation band of your property is incorrect on:

• Telephone: 0300 501 501
• Email: cteast@voa.gsi.gov.uk 

Police, fire and local council services are paid for by Council Tax and Government grants, and in some cases, through charges for services. Council Tax is based on property values and, in this area, is collected by Bassetlaw District Council on behalf of all four organisations.

 

How Council Tax is shared out

Based on a Band D property, the following table shows how much of your Council Tax goes to each organisation and the percentage share.

• Parish Councils 1.80%
• Nottinghamshire Police 11.66%
• Nottinghamshire Fire & Rescue Service 3.83%
• Bassetlaw District Council 8.11%
• Nottinghamshire County Council 74.60%

*Nottinghamshire County Council are also levying a charge to pay for the provision of Adult Social Care. The council tax attributable to Nottinghamshire County Council includes a precept to fund adult social care.

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’.

The offer of an additional “precept” has been available to adult social care authorities every financial year since 2016/17.

How we set your Council Tax

This shows the breakdown of the council tax requirement for Bassetlaw District Council including parish precepts. 

Services provided by Bassetlaw District Council	Gross Expenditure 2026/27 (£)	Net Expenditure 2026/27 (£)	Net Expenditure 2025/26(£)
Chief Executive Department	576,000	447,100	515,000
People and Transformation	2,587,100	2,117,300	777,700
Corporate Services	0	0	0
Legal and Governance	1,924,000	969,900	0
Performance and Engagement	2,597,200	1,536,200	0
Finance, Property and Revenue	22,759,400	4,036,500	3,713,800
Neighbourhoods	11,317,500	8,077,600	8,426,900
Planning and Place	3,367,800	1,424,300	1,054,100
Housing General Fund	2,364,900	653,400	605,300
Growth and Economic Prosperity	4,288,100	3,080,200	2,420,000
Services Total	54,782,000	22,342,500	21,424,600
Other Budgets	7,354,800	2,461,000	611,600
Transfer to (+) from (-)	2,650,400	2,650,400	2,805,700
Budget Requirement	64,787,200	27,453,900	24,841,900

Less:

Services provided by Bassetlaw District Council	Net Expenditure 2026/27 (£)	Net Expenditure 2025/36 (£)
Retained Business Rates	5,877,000	3,499,200
Government Grant Funding	11,371,000	11,676,400
Council Tax Requirement (including Parishes)	10,205,600	9,666,300

 

What are the significant changes?

Bassetlaw’s council tax requirement for last year 2025/26 was £9,666,300. Significant changes are as shown in the table.

Major Changes between Years	Amount (£)
Pay inflation - (incl pay award, pensions, N.I. & Apprenticeship levy)	777,400
Contract Inflation	124,300
Movement in reserves	-155,300
Various other net increases	219,500
Efficiency savings and increased fees and charges	-587,000
Budget Pressures	1,668,100
Capital Grants Received (including regeneration initiatives such as Levelling Up Partnership Fund, Levelling Up Fund, etc)	933,000
Capital Grants Expended (including regeneration initiatives such as Levelling Up Partnership Fund, Levelling Up Fund, etc)	-933,000
Parish precept requirements	172,100
Retained business rates and government grants	-1,986,100
Increased capital costs	306,300
Sub total	539,300

 

Council Tax requirement for all area services

We then ask Notts County Council, the Police Authority, the Fire Service and the 48 parish councils in the district, what their future budget requirements are for the year and add these together to arrive at a total we need to collect through Council Tax. Information about the services provided by the County Council, Police and Fire Authorities can be found on their websites.

Total Required	Total of Required (£)	Percentage (%)	£ (shown as a Band D equivalent)
Bassetlaw District Council	8,275,554	8.02%	212.05
Total Parish requirement (48 precepts)	1,930,094	1.87%	49.46
Nottinghamshire County Council (including Adult Social Care)	76,887,141	74.49%	1,970.13
Nottinghamshire Police & Crime Commissioner	12,141,122	11.76%	311.10
Combined Fire Authority	3,988,891	3.86%	102.21
Council Tax requirement 2026/27	103,222,802	100.00%	2,644.95

 
We divide the above total required (£103,222,802) by the total number of Band D equivalent chargeable dwellings known as the tax base.

For 2026/27 taxbase is 39,026.43 to reach an average Band D charge of £2,644.95.

Please note: Actual charges may vary and are listed for each Town or Parish.

Who does what?

Bassetlaw District Council provides important local services to citizens, residents, businesses, charities and voluntary groups. Services include:

Corporate Resources

• Community Safety, CCTV, Anti-Social Behaviour
• Business Rates, Council Tax, Housing Benefit
• Democratic Services, Elections, Communications
• Customer Services, Information Technology, Geographical Information System
• Finance, Grants to support voluntary sector
• Legal Licensing

Regeneration and Neighbourhoods

• Bassetlaw Museum
• Leisure Facilities, Parks & Open Spaces
• Car Parks, Tourism, Markets, Shopmobility
• Household Waste, Trade Waste, Recycling, Street Sweeping
• Planning, Building Control
• Food Hygiene, Environment Health, Public Health

More information about other services

Your Council Tax funds other important local services, as well as Bassetlaw District Council Services.

Other major preceptors

Harworth & Bircotes Town Council, Carlton-in-Lindrick Parish Council and Tuxford Town Council each raise in excess of £140,000 as a Parish charge. We are required to give details of how they work out their requirements.

Budget of Harworth & Bircotes Town Council

How Harworth & Bircotes Town Council (external link) have worked out their requirements from Council Tax.

	Previous Year 2025/26 (£)	This Year 2026/27 (£)
Expenditure	415,731	431,497
Less other income	89,122	78,759
Precept	326,609	352,738

  

Budget of Carlton-in-Lindrick Parish Council

How Carlton-in-Lindrick Parish Council (external link) have worked out their requirements from Council Tax.

• Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service (external link)
• Nottinghamshire Police and Crime Commissioner (external link)
• Nottinghamshire County Council (external link) 

Your Council Tax by Parish & Town 2026/27

The charges shown are based on two adult residents.

Council taxes include Bassetlaw District Council, Nottinghamshire Police, Combined Fire Authority and Parish.

If you live in parts of the Bassetlaw District where no parish levy applies, please see ‘All other parts of Bassetlaw’.

This covers residents in Bole; Carburton; Clumber and Hardwick; Haughton; Scaftworth; Wallingwells; West Burton.

Empty Dwelling Discounts & Charges

Discounts

These discounts apply to the property. A change in ownership does not trigger a fresh period of entitlement to the discounts. The discounts apply from the date on which the dwelling becomes empty.

Dwellings which are furnished but unoccupied are known as ‘second homes’, they are billed at the full rate; there is no discount for these dwellings. The premium charge is not billed on second homes. 

Premium charges for long term empty dwellings

If the property has been empty and substantially unfurnished for two years or more, you will be required to pay an empty home premium on top of the full Council Tax charge for your property.

The premium is 100% of the full Council Tax charge for your property, so you will have to pay 200% of the full Council Tax charge.

• Council Tax discounts

Council Tax banding and appeals

What do others pay in Council Tax compared with band A? 

Generally, the higher the band, the higher the Council Tax payable.

For example, a Band D pays 1½ times more than a band A. The fractions shown above are set by the Government and do not change from year to year.

Can I appeal against my property valuation band?

The Valuation Office Agency (VOA) values domestic properties for council tax. This valuation is used to set your council tax band. You might need to contact the VOA if you think your council tax band is wrong (external link). If you challenge your band, you must continue to pay council tax at your current band until your appeal is decided. 

You can contact the VOA (external link). If you are unable to use the online service you can also contact the VOA on 03000 501 501.

Help to pay - Council Tax

Council Tax Reduction (CTR) replaced Council Tax Benefit from April 2013 and each year since then, the Council has set a local discount scheme for working age people. The Government retained a national scheme for people of Pension age, which is means-tested.

The local scheme is designed to assist those on low incomes or out of work benefits such as Jobseekers Allowance, Employment Support Allowance and the new Universal Credit. It also supports those who have a severe disability. 

You can make a claim for council tax reduction. If you need help to claim or any advice on what you can claim, there are also links on the benefits pages to help you, including a benefit calculator.

A full copy of the council’s Council Tax Reduction Scheme can be found on the above website and search for “Council Tax Reduction”

Help and Advice

For general benefits advice you can contact us by emailing customer.services@bassetlaw.gov.uk, completing our 'make a benefits enquiry' form online or calling us on 01909 533 710.

For help to arrange payment call 01909 533 234 or if you need to talk to one of our money advisors call 01909 533 744.

Council Tax Reduction - What is changing?

The amount of Council Tax Reduction shown on your bill (a deduction from your bill due to low income), may have changed from 1 April. This is for two reasons;

• A recalculation due to the increase in the net Council Tax payable on the property for the coming year

• An increase in the income bands of 1.7% in line with changes the Dept. for Work and Pensions will make to most benefits (CPI). This should ensure most remain in the same income band as the previous year.

New CTR bands of entitlement

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Last Updated on Tuesday, April 21, 2026