At a meeting of Mid Devon District Council’s full council Members set the budget for the financial year 2021/22 including the district precept for council tax.

Next financial year the average Band D property will pay £213.84 to Mid Devon District Council, which is an increase of 2.39%.

The amount of money the district council receives is one small element of a household’s council tax bill, with the others comprised of precepts from town or parish councils, Devon County Council, Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue and Devon and Cornwall Police and Crime Commission.

This means an average band D household’s total council tax bill will rise from £2021.45 in 2020/21 to £2121.06 in 2021/22.

Leader of the Council, Bob Deed, said: “Setting an informed and realistic budget has been particularly challenging this year due to the impact of the Covid-19. The pandemic has undoubtedly had a huge influence on the running of the Council and this is likely to remain the case for some time. However, despite these challenges we have managed to ensure we have a balanced budget that allows us to continue to provide a high quality service to our communities and businesses. This next year will see significant housing growth in Mid Devon, as well as a focus on delivering our carbon emissions reduction. It is a challenging time, but also one of hope for a bright future across the district.”

The Council has a duty to provide statutory services such as waste collection, recycling and street cleansing, homelessness provision and planning. We are also committed to providing non statutory services for our residents which include investment in leisure, the provision of parks and open spaces and community development grants.

The council tax collected is used, in part, to fund these services and details of the allocated 2021/22 budget are detailed in the table below.

Mid Devon	2020/21 £m	2021/22 £m
Total gross budget	50.200	52.613
Housing	26.366	27.633
Transport	0.750	0.841
Environment	6.843	7.146
Planning	3.728	4.524
Recreation and tourism	5.476	5.581
Other	5.198	4.904
Parish precepts	1.837	1.984

A number of these gross service costs are paid for from income streams such as leisure charges, trade waste, car parking and planning fees. The net cost of running the council is funded by the income below streams:

Income stream	£m
Housing rents/charges	13.071
Government funding	2.605
Business rates	3.150
Council tax	6.115

Full details about council tax charges for 2021/22 as well as previous years can be found here.