Council Tax

The money collected through Council Tax helps pay for a proportion of Devon County Council services for more than 826,000 people in the Devon county area.

For 2024/25, for an average band D property, the Council Tax charge from DCC will be £1,715.67 (£1,634.13 in 2023/24). This is an increase of 4.99% or £81.54.

On 18 December 2023, the Rt Hon Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, released a Written Ministerial Statement to Parliament setting out the Provisional Local Government Finance Settlement for 2024/25 financial year. The Secretary of State issued a further Written Statement on 24 January 2024 indicating that a further £600 million of funding will be provided for local government in addition to the funding set out in the Provisional Settlement, with details confirmed in the Final Settlement on 5 February 2024.

The Local Government Finance Settlement for 2024/25 will represent the final year of the Government’s current three-year Spending Review. Despite this being a three-year Review, local authorities have only received a one-year settlement each year for 2022/23, 2023/24, and 2024/25.

Funding information for 2025/26 and later years is not currently available therefore assumptions in our Medium Term Financial Plan projections are based on a continuation of the current approach and relative levels of funding.

Council Tax is collected by your district council and distributed across a number of local public authorities:

  • Devon County Council uses Council Tax to provide education, roads, care for older people and people with disabilities, child protection, youth services, libraries, and recycling centres and waste disposal services.
  • Your district council uses Council Tax to provide refuse collection, kerbside recycling, housing, planning, street cleaning and leisure services.
  • Devon and Cornwall Police and Crime Commissioner uses Council Tax to provide law and order and crime reduction.
  • Devon & Somerset Fire and Rescue Authority uses Council Tax to provide fire prevention and fire and rescue services.
  • Your local town and parish councils use Council Tax to provide local amenities

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 is decided on the number of adults living in the household.

Devon County Council charge for each band

Band A Band B Band C Band D Band E Band F Band G Band H
£1,143.78 £1,334.41 £1,525.04 £1,715.67 £2,096.93 £2,478.19 £2,859.45 £3,431.34

The total amount you will pay includes taxes payable to the Police and Crime Commissioner for Devon and Cornwall, Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Authority, your local district council and in some cases your local parish or town council.

How the adult social care precept is shown on the council tax bill

Council Tax bills for 2024/25 are showing a 2% increase next to the adult social care component. This increase is calculated as 2% of the overall Devon County Council charge from 2023/24. The increases in Council Tax attributable to adult social care for periods 2016/17 to 2024/25 are added together to show the total amount of your Council Tax bill that relates to the adult social care component in 2024/25.

More information and an explanation of how the adult social care component is calculated can be found here.

Devon County Council is a precepting authority and does not administrate Council Tax. Enquiries about payments, rebates or benefits should be made to your district or city council.

How your council tax is spent

Devon County Council plans to spend just under £1,837 million (gross) this year (just over £1,710 million in 2023/24) on providing services to more than 826,000 people in Devon. Just over £1,314 million (just under £1,218 million 2023/24) of this comes from income we receive from Government grants, business rates, fees and charges and distribution of previous year’s surplus of Council Tax which leaves a council tax requirement for 2024/25 of £523.974 million (£491.805 million 2023/24).

More information about our spending plans for 2024/25 can be found at Budgets.

Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities 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.