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Council Tax budgets

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Council Tax is made up of 3 parts (known as precepts):

  • Dorset Police
  • Dorset & Wiltshire Fire and Rescue
  • us (BCP Council)

Find out more about the Dorset Police and Dorset & Wiltshire Fire and Rescue precepts.

The list below shows the amount of Council Tax you have to pay in from 2024 to 2026 depending on your property valuation band.

Band D precepts - major preceptors
Preceptor from 2025 to 2026 from 2026 to 2027
Fire £91.95 £96.95
Police £307.58 £322.58
BCP Council £1,855.41 £1,980.46

The following summarises the Budget approved by Full Council on 24 February 2026. View the full report.

BCP Council from 2026 to 2027 budget
Budget segment Expenditure (£'000) Income (£'000) Net (£'000)
Wellbeing 351,472  (150,610)  200,862
Children's services 276,738  (159,127)  117,611
Operations 187,069  (129,508)  57,561
Resources and executive 59,089  (9,777)  49,312
Net cost of services 874,368  (449,022)  425,346
Corporate items 49,751  (173,113)  (123,362)
Budget requirement 924,119  (622,135)  301,984
BCP Council from 2025 to 2026 budget
Budget segment Expenditure (£'000) Income (£'000) Net (£'000)
Wellbeing 309,279 (172,579) 136,700
Children's services 253,488 (155,260) 98,228
Operations 170,624 (114,538) 56,086
Resources and executive 50,913 (8,429) 42,484
Net cost of services 784,304 (450,806) 333,498
Corporate items 43,467 (95,733) (52,266)
Budget requirement 827,771 (546,539) 281,232
Gross expenditure and Council Tax requirement
Budget segment from 2025 to 2026 (£'000) from 2026 to 2027 (£'000)
Gross expenditure 827,771 924,119
Council Tax requirement 281,232 301,984
Factors behind the change in the gross expenditure and budget requirement
  Rounded (£m)
Wellbeing – growth in demand and cost increases. 42.2
Children’s Services – demand and cost increases 23.3
Operation 16.4
Corporate Services 8.2
Corporate Items 6.3
Change in Gross Expenditure 96.3
Increase in Council Tax 20.8

Planned capital spend from 2026 to 2027

The table below sets out our planned capital spend.

Budget segment £'000
Adult social care 2,672
Children's services 14,414
Commercial operations 26,964
Customer, arts and property 18,333
Environment 18,923
Investment and development 3,300
Planning and transport 18,653
Housing and communities 1,775
Other schemes 2,408
Total Planned Capital Programme from 2026 to 2027 107,442

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