Guide Council Tax FAQ

4. What does Council Tax pay for? Who to speak to about the police/fire/parish charges

For 2023/2024 financial year

The money collected through Council Tax helps pay for services for approximately 810,000 people in the Devon County area. Council Tax is collected by East Devon District Council and distributed across these local public authorities:

• 73% goes to Devon County Council  to provide education, roads, care for older people and people with disabilities, child protection, youth services, libraries, recycling centres and waste disposal.
• 12% goes to Police and Crime Commissioner for Devon and Cornwall Police  to provide law and order and crime reduction.
• 4% goes to Devon & Somerset Fire & Rescue Authority to provide fire prevention and fire and rescue services.
• 7% goes to East Devon District Council to provide refuse collection, kerbside recycling, homeless and private sector housing services, planning, street cleaning and leisure
• 4% goes to Town and Parish councils to provide local amenities.

If you have a query regarding the amount charged by any of the above organisations, please contact the relevant body direct.

East Devon District Council's Council Tax charges 2023/24

Your Council Tax band is decided by the Listing Officer from the Valuation Office and is based on the open market value of a property on 1 April 1991. All properties are placed into one of eight bands and the band for your home will be shown on your bill. In some cases, a Council Tax bill varies depending on the number of adults living in the household. This is how much East Devon District Council charges for each band:

East Devon District Council spending plans 2023/24:

General Fund comment:

East Devon District Council plans to spend £73.8m (gross) this year on providing services to people in East Devon. £63.8m of this comes from income we receive from business rates, property rents, fees and charges and government administration grants, which leaves £10.0m (£9.5m 2022/23) to be met through Council Tax. East Devon District Council’s share of Council Tax will increase by £5, which means a 3.19% rise and Band D now charged at £161.78 a year.

£18.3m will be spent on Housing Benefit and Council Tax Reduction payments mainly met by government grants. Other areas of expenditure include £9.2m on recycling and collecting waste, £1.6m car parks, £1.7m Public Health, £2.9m sports centres and swimming pools, £3.0m parks, open space and play equipment, £0.7m public conveniences, £2.5m street cleaning and £3.6 on development management and planning applications administration.

Capital spending comment:

In addition to the spending detailed above, during 2023/24 capital projects spend is planned of £11.7m. The main areas of spend being: £4.9m on council housing, £1.9m on economic development and regeneration, £0.9m on sports centres and swimming pools,  £3.1m on streetscene and engineering related projects. 

HRA comment:

Spending on council owned housing is planned to be £20.8m to provide management and maintenance of the housing stock and planned improvements. These costs are met from rents paid by tenants.

Detailed information including Revenue & Capital Estimates is available in our Finance pages.

Service plans

Our annual service plans detail what will be delivered in each service area. They provide information about the service and what it aims to achieve in the current financial year. They also set out service challenges for the next three years, emerging risks, staffing and training and any equalities actions to be achieved. 

Performance reporting

The progress of the service plan objectives is reported through our performance reporting pages.

Council Tax Bands, Parish Precepts and Town and Parish Councils with budgets over £140k in 2023/24:

You can calculate your Council Tax based on your postcode.

The following three schedules are available under item 64 in the minutes of the Council meeting held on Wednesday 22 February 2023 (select Council above Annual Council):

Schedule 1 Breakdown of a band D charge by parish,
Schedule 2 East Devon District Council charge (including Town/Parish tax) by parish
Schedule 3 Council Tax charge (all bands) by parish

Town and Parish Councils with budgets over £140,000 - 2023/24

The average 2023/24 Council Tax charge for a band D property in East Devon is £2235.71 and is made up as follows:

In relation to the year beginning in 2020 and any subsequent year, the government provided the following statement:

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.