Bolsover council to increase council tax and rent while facing funding uncertainty and Local Government Reorganisation

Councillors at the Labour-controlled authority voted by a majority at a council meeting on January 28 to confirm plans for the current 2025-26 budget and for the 2026-27 financial year’s budget, as well as arrangements for its General Fund, Housing Revenue Account and Capital Programme as part of the council’s Medium-Term Financial Plan from 2025-26 to 2029-30.

The council agreed to increase its precept share of residents’ council tax bills by 2.99per cent or £6.25 a year based on a Band D property to generate additional revenue of £147,783 for the council, and it also agreed to increase tenants’ social housing rent by 4.8per cent to apply from April 1, 2026, in line with national guidelines.

Cllr Clive Moesby, Resources portfolio holder, said: “We are not sure where we are going. We have to be prudent. We have to be sensible and we have to make sure we can deliver the services we have to.”

He added the Government’s three-year funding settlement for councils does help with future planning unlike the previous one-year arrangement, but its finer details have not yet been finalised.

Cllr Moesby also explained the council like many in two-tier authorities is facing Government plans for Local Government Reorganisation that could see the introduction of a one unitary council in Derbyshire with district and borough councils merged.

He also pointed out that the Government’s Business Rate Reset is expected to mean a base rate reduction for the council from £10.4m in 2025-26 to £3.9m in 2026-27 before it is expected to start to increase again to an estimated £4.9m in 2029-30.

However, Cllr Moesby explained the council is expected to have a National Non-Domestic Rates Reserve growth protection reserve of £16.9m by March, 2026, which was set up to fill any necessary gaps and he says despite the council being in ‘new territory’ its finances and reserves can provide the necessary services to the people it represents.

Councillors previously agreed a budget for 2025-26, in January, 2025, with a 2.99per cent council tax increase which has shown a balanced budget with neither a surplus nor deficit and other key factors considered in the council needing to set a balanced budget for 2026-27 have included inflation, pay awards, fees for planning and fees and charges.

The council’s budget report also stated that project Eiffel Tower has been established to manage the transition of development company Dragonfly staff and services back into the council by March 31 and its budget plans for 2026-27 – 2029-30 have been produced with the assumption that this will be successfully achieved from April 1.

Cllr Moesby explained that Bolsover district is ‘not one of the most affluent districts’ and a lot of its properties do not fall into the Band D category so the stipulated council tax increase based on Band D properties will ‘reduce down’ for other categories such as smaller and less expensive Band A properties.

He added that the social housing rent increase on all new build properties equated to a £4.84 a week average increase for social rent property tenants and a £6.53 a week average increase for affordable rent property tenants.

Conservative Group Leader, Cllr Will Fletcher, argued that in light of healthy financial reserves, referring to the £16.9m NNDRR, he does not think the council should be increasing its share of residents’ council tax bills.

He told the meeting: “It’s for that reason I do not think it’s a scenario where we should be asking residents for more council tax and that’s why we will be voting against it today.”

Resident Nick Clarke, who was permitted to speak under a deputation process, told the meeting he also does not think there should be a council tax rate increase and he believes the council’s reserves should be used instead so they will not be soaked up by another authority in the event of LGR.

Mr Clarke said: “With Local Government Reform looming we believe that this council should be concentrating solely on what is best for the people of Bolsover – namely protecting, improving, and safeguarding our assets along with ensuring that the monies paid to this authority via our council tax payments are used for the benefit of the people of Bolsover and not gift-wrapped for a newly created authority by which point we will have much less local representation.”

He argued it is ‘absolutely impossible’ to comprehend why the council has proposed to increase its council tax rate by the maximum allowed by the Government and it has proposed to increase council house tenants’ rent bills particularly after the council’s own development company Dragonfly’s accounts showed the company had made approximately post-tax profits of just under £3m in its three years of operation, according to Companies House.

Mr Clarke added: “As this authority will cease to exist in just over two years due to the upcoming Local Government Reforms, it would be sensible to ensure that the reserves held by Bolsover District Council should be used for the benefit of the public in either implementing improvements to local facilities throughout the district or to offset any potential increase in the level of council tax rather than allow those reserves to be subsumed into a replacement unitary authority with the risk that that money would not be used for the people of Bolsover district.”

Independent Group Leader, Cllr Deborah Watson, also argued that councils should not follow Government directives and assumptions to increase their council tax precepts or comply with Local Government Reorganisation plans.

She said: “I understand the budget-making process but my duty as a member is to represent the interests of the people who elected me to this authority and it’s been reminded to me it’s those interests that we should represent first.

“We do not have to blindly follow what Government is directing to us but that is the message I am receiving today.”

Fearing a lack of local representation under LGR, Cllr Watson told councillors: “The council tax will only be the starting point and it will go up and up and in my opinion we will get less of a service and get less say.

“We do not have to kowtow to the establishment. Fight against it, Make a stand and say, ‘no’.”

Cllr Moesby said the the Government’s latest funding settlement for the council has not yet been confirmed and the council is not sure what is happening with LGR.

He said: “We are facing some financial pressures in the future that we have not come across so we need to be prudent and sensible in how we manage our finances.”

Cllr Moesby added: “I have a duty to not just look after financial stability in difficult times but also the service provision that people expect.”

He said: “Until we do get LGR approved, as a council we have a duty to ensure we have got the reserves in place to deliver the services to have a duty of care to have the billing in place to keep delivering services.”

Cllr Moesby said: “We are not doing this to be spiteful. I am a socialist. I am left-wing Labour, so I am after looking after people and trying to protect them and this way forward is the way to ensure we can do that.”

Councillors voted by a majority in favour of approving plans for its current and on-going 2025-26 budget as well as for its proposed 2026-27 budget for the financial year from April, 2026, to April, 2027, including the latest council tax rate and rent increases.

They also approved plans for the General Fund, Housing Revenue Account and Capital Programme arrangements as part of the council’s agreed Medium-Term Financial Plan from 2025-26 to 2029-30.

Those in favour of the budget plans included 18 councillors while 12 voted against the plans and one councillor abstained.

The overall council tax bill for Derbyshire residents includes an accumulation of numerous precepts determined by the county council and relevant local authorities including district or borough councils, parish or town councils and the police and fire authorities as part of their annual budget arrangements.