Your council tax pays for the delivery of essential services in our district, from ensuring policing levels are maintained, the fire service is on call 24 hours a day or local restaurants and takeaways food standards are kept at an acceptable level.
Council tax is charged on all residential properties in England. For the Harrogate district, we are the ‘billing authority’ and collect council tax on behalf of Harrogate Borough Council, North Yorkshire County Council, North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner in respect of both the Police and Fire and Rescue services that they provide.
One council tax bill is sent to each property regardless of how many people live there.
Information on paying your council tax
How is my bill calculated?
The amount you pay depends on the valuation band of your property. Each residential property in the district is valued by the Valuation Office Agency and placed into a band from A to H. The bands are based on what a home might have sold for in April 1991.
The band your property falls into is shown on your council tax bill, or can be found on the check your council tax band page of the GOV.UK website. If you think your home is in the wrong band you can challenge your council tax band.
Your bill shows separate amounts for the various authorities named below, and a further amount for the adult social care precept.
Council tax increases 2020/21
Each authority above sets its own tax level, and changes in the overall tax bill for 2020/21 can be seen in the table below.
| Band D tax | Increase | % | Percentage of overall tax bill | |
| North Yorkshire County Council* | £1,363.47 | £52.31 | 4.0 | 70% |
| North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue | £72.69 | £1.42 | 2.0 | 3.7% |
| North Yorkshire Police | £265.77 | £10.00 | 3.9 | 13.7% |
| Harrogate Borough Council | £245.92 | £5.00 | 2.1 | 12.6% |
| Total | £1,947.85 | £68.73 | 3.7 | 100% |
*The council tax attributable to North Yorkshire County Council includes a precept for adult social care
Council tax charges 2020/21
The amounts for the different services for each valuation band can be seen in the table below.
| Services provided by: | Band A | Band B | Band C | Band D |
| Harrogate Borough Council | £163.95 | £191.27 | £218.60 | £245.92 |
| North Yorkshire County Council | £829.07 | £967.25 | £1105.43 | £1243.61 |
| NYCC Adult Social Care | £79.91 | £93.22 | £106.54 | £119.86 |
| North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue | £48.46 | £56.54 | £64.61 | £72.69 |
| North Yorkshire Police | £177.18 | £206.71 | £236.24 | £265.77 |
| Total | £1298.57 | £1514.99 | £1731.42 | £1947.85 |
| Services provided by: | Band E | Band F | Band G | Band H |
| Harrogate Borough Council | £300.57 | £355.22 | £409.87 | £491.84 |
| North Yorkshire County Council | £1519.97 | £1796.33 | £2072.68 | £2487.22 |
| NYCC Adult Social Care | £146.50 | £173.13 | £199.77 | £239.72 |
| North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue | £88.84 | £105.00 | £121.15 | £145.38 |
| North Yorkshire Police | £324.83 | £383.89 | £442.95 | £531.54 |
| Total | £2380.71 | £2813.57 | £3246.42 | £3895.70 |
These figures do not include any local parish precept charge. The exact charge will vary depending on which parish area the property is in.
You can view the council tax charges for each parish in the Harrogate district. For more information on Parish precepts please see the parish precept page.
What is the additional element relating to adult social care?
North Yorkshire County council is the authority which provides adult social care services, and we collect this charge on their behalf.
From 2016/17 the government has allowed councils that provide social care to adults to increase their share of council tax. This additional council tax charge is called the adult social care precept and is specifically ring-fenced to adult social care. It is a government requirement that this precept is shown as a separate line on the bill.
For more information, please see North Yorkshire County Council explaining our budget 2020/21.
What does my council tax pay for?
For more information on the services each authority provides, please use the links below:
North Yorkshire County Council
North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue
North Yorkshire Police
Harrogate Borough Council
We keep less than 13p in every pound of the council tax you pay to fund the services we provide. The most common services people associate with local authorities are waste collections and highway maintenance. Highway maintenance is the responsibility of North Yorkshire County Council, but in addition to waste and recycling, amongst other things we look after:
- planning consent in the district
- food hygiene
- supporting residents who are vulnerable or in need through the provision of benefits, welfare and homelessness prevention
- dog wardens
- managing a CCTV network 24/7
- licencing of businesses, premises and taxis
- looking after our open spaces and children's play areas
- operating our six swimming pool and leisure sites
- managing and maintaining over 3,800 council homes
- maintaining our cultural and visitor offering through museums, galleries and tourist information offices
- looking at the economic development of the district and ensuring Harrogate remains the best place to live, work and visit
As an authority, we need to manage provision of these services whilst dealing with a number of different budget pressures. We recognise the importance of maintaining our services to the district so we try to minimise the increase in council tax by carefully managing our spending. For 2020/21 we are making expenditure savings of £544,000 whilst we continue to expand areas of income generation, such as green garden waste, the Turkish Baths and trade waste services to name a few.
The total projected budget for Harrogate Borough Council in 2020/21 is shown below:
| Budget 2020/21 | |||||||
| 2019/20 | 2020/21 | ||||||
| Gross cost £’000 |
Income and grants £’000 |
Net cost £’000 |
Service | Gross cost £’000 |
Income and grants £’000 |
Net cost £’000 |
|
| 15,390 | -18,511 | -3,121 | Housing and Property | 15,606 | -19,192 | -3,586 | |
| 13,641 | -6,546 | 7,095 | Parks and Environmental Services | 14,260 | -6,767 | 7,493 | |
| 4,132 | -4,209 | -77 | Safer Communities | 4,535 | -4,072 | 463 | |
| 21,877 | -20,844 | 1,033 | Finance | 17,386 | -16,249 | 1,137 | |
| 2,376 | -3 | 2,373 | Legal and Governance | 2,509 | -3 | 2,506 | |
| 612 | 0 | 612 | Organisational Development and Improvement | 601 | 0 | 601 | |
| 12,050 | -5,659 | 6,391 | Culture, Tourism and Sport | 13,722 | -5,666 | 8,056 | |
| 7,297 | -3,913 | 3,384 | Place Shaping and Economic Growth | 7,228 | -3,931 | 3,297 | |
| 8,159 | -5,113 | 3,046 | Harrogate Convention Centre | 8,064 | -4,762 | 3,302 | |
| 1,204 | -966 | 238 | Corporate | 1,458 | -874 | 584 | |
| 86,738 | -65,764 | 20,974 | Cost of services | 85,369 | -61,516 | 23,853 | |
| 2,521 | -660 | 1,861 | Other operating costs and balance transfers | -475 | -710 | -1,185 | |
| 29,937 | -37,724 | -7,787 | Retained business rates and non-specific grant income | 22,972 | -30,042 | -7,070 | |
| 119,196 | -104,148 | 15,048 | Borough council council tax requirement | 107,866 | -92,268 | 15,598 | |
| 1,085 | 0 | 1,085 | Parish precepts | 1,131 | 0 | 1,131 | |
| 120,281 | -104,148 | 16,133 | Borough and parish council tax requirement | 108,997 | -92,268 | 16,729 | |
The Harrogate Borough Council element of the bill is worked out by dividing the total amount needed in the budget from local tax payers (£15,598,150 for 2020/21 as calculated above) by the equivalent number of residential properties that are classified as Band D (63,427.74).
15,598,150 (budget) / 63,427.74 (Band D) = £245.92 per Band D property
The amounts due for residential properties in other bands are ratios of the above and are shown in the table below:
| Band | Value at 1 April 1991 | Ratio | Amount |
| A | Not more than £40,000 | 6/9 | £163.95 |
| B | £40,001 to £52,000 | 7/9 | £191.27 |
| C | £52,001 to £68,000 | 8/9 | £218.60 |
| D | £68,001 to £88,000 | 9/9 | £245.92 |
| E | £88,001 to £120,000 | 11/9 | £300.57 |
| F | £120,001 to £160,000 | 13/9 | £355.22 |
| G | £160,001 to £320,000 | 15/9 | £409.87 |
| H | Over £320,000 | 18/9 | £491.84 |
Council tax information for previous financial year
Gross expenditure details of the precepting authorities for the last financial year
North Yorkshire County Council services - 2019/20
Fire and Police precept - 2019/20