Fareham council tax 2026/27: £2,270.55 at band D

A band D household anywhere in Fareham borough pays £2,270.55 in 2026/27, up £106.00, or 4.9%, on last year’s £2,164.55.

Only £197.14 of that is Fareham Borough Council’s, which is under 9p in every pound. The county council takes £1,690.11, three quarters of the bill. That gap is why the borough can freeze its own charges and still send you a bill that goes up: the decisions that move the number are made in Winchester, not at the Civic Offices.

Every figure here comes from Fareham Borough Council’s own council tax pages and its band D calculation, read on 15 August 2026.

The full band A to H table, 2026/27

One table covers the whole borough. Fareham has no parish or town councils, so unlike almost every other Hampshire district there is no parish precept line and no village-by-village variation. Titchfield, Stubbington, Portchester, Warsash, Whiteley and Fareham town all pay the same for the same band.

The single person row is the council’s own published figure, not our arithmetic, and it is the one worth checking against your bill: a band C household that qualifies pays £1,513.70, exactly what a band A household pays at the full rate.

Council tax is billed over ten instalments by default, which is why the monthly figures above are a tenth and not a twelfth. You can ask to spread it over twelve.

Bands are set on what the property was worth on 1 April 1991, not today. Fareham publishes the ranges: band A up to £40,000, B £40,001 to £52,000, C £52,001 to £68,000, D £68,001 to £88,000, E £88,001 to £120,000, F £120,001 to £160,000, G £160,001 to £320,000, H over £320,000.

What changed this year

Fareham’s own share went up by £5.72, which the council states as 2.99%. That is a shade under the 3% ceiling a district can apply without holding a referendum, and it is the smallest increase of the four authorities on the bill by some distance. The council says it consulted residents in early 2026 and that the rise was needed to keep services running.

For context on what the borough is up against, its own budget summary shows net expenditure rising from £14.322m in 2025/26 to £15.667m in 2026/27, retained business rates falling from £4.530m to £3.348m, and the Lower Tier Support Grant rising from £1.255m to £3.444m. It names the specific pressures as homelessness services, “changing demand for parking income”, Hampshire County Council’s waste and recycling arrangements, maintaining its own assets and managing its woodlands.

Two claims the council makes about itself, both from its own pages: in 2025/26 Fareham had the second lowest council tax in Hampshire and the fourth lowest of any district council in England, and it collected 98.3% of all council tax in 2024/25 against a national average of 95.8%.

Checking your band, and challenging it

Your band is set by the Valuation Office Agency, not the council, and you can look up any property free on gov.uk. Fareham also lets you inspect the valuation list in person at the Civic Offices during working hours.

Where you appeal depends on what you are arguing about, and getting this wrong wastes months:

• The band itself, or whether the property should be in the list at all: this goes to the Listing Officer at the Valuation Office Agency as a “proposal to alter the valuation list”. The council cannot change your band.
• A discount, an exemption, who is liable, or a penalty: this goes to the council in writing. It must respond within two months. If it rejects the appeal, does nothing, or does not decide at all, you then have two months to take it to the Valuation Tribunal, which is free unless you hire a professional.
• A completion notice date: appeal to the Valuation Tribunal within four weeks.

In every case you must keep paying while the appeal runs. If you win, the overpayment is refunded.

Discounts and reductions

Single person: 25% off. If you are the only adult resident and it is your main home. The council reviews entitlement regularly and cross-checks against other agencies, and it sends questionnaires with bills asking people to confirm.

Care leavers. Anyone aged 18 to 25 who was in the care of an English local authority has their Fareham council tax treated as not collectable, in full or in part, including where they move into a household and cause the loss of a single person discount. This has applied since 1 April 2019 and is more generous than many councils’ equivalents.

Annexes: 50% off where a family member of the main bill payer lives in the annexe, or where the annexe is unoccupied and used as part of the main home. Annexes lived in by dependent relatives are exempt entirely.

Job-related dwellings: 50% off on a second home you have to keep for work.

Council Tax Support replaced the old means test with a banded income scheme on 1 April 2026. Working age claimants are placed in one of six household types and awarded 100%, 75%, 50%, 25% or nothing depending on weekly income. A single adult gets 100% up to £199.99 a week and nothing at £350 or more; a couple with two or more children gets 100% up to £399.99 and nothing at £550 or more. Savings above £16,000 disqualify you outright, savings below it are ignored entirely, and there are no deductions for other adults in the household. Earnings get a £50 a week disregard, and households on DLA, PIP or the limited capability for work element of Universal Credit get £100 a week disregarded. The full bands are on the council’s working age scheme page.

Empty homes and second homes

Fareham charges some of the steepest empty property premiums available, and they stack on top of the full bill:

A band D house left empty for six years therefore costs £6,811.65 a year rather than £2,270.55.

There are exceptions, and they are worth knowing if you are selling or renovating: a property actively marketed for sale or to let is exempt from the premium for up to 12 months from the date marketing first started, as is one undergoing major repairs or structural alteration, or one recently through probate. The catch, spelled out on the council’s unoccupied property page, is that the 12 months runs from when marketing first began, not from when the premium started, so a house that had already been on the market a year when the second homes premium came in on 1 April 2025 got no relief at all. You have to apply by email to counciltax@fareham.gov.uk with evidence, including the agent’s listing and the EPC.

One warning

The council has reported fraudulent texts and emails telling Fareham residents there is “no record” of their council tax payment, sent under official-sounding names such as “Local Taxation Office” or “Council Revenue Services”. Fareham’s real council tax number is 01329 824651 and the real email is counciltax@fareham.gov.uk. Do not follow a payment link from an unexpected message.

The four precepts add to the published total in every band except C, where the council’s own figures round to a penny less than its stated total. We have printed its figures as published.

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