Councils’ debt across Hampshire has now topped £2.7bn
Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council has the lowest debt figure of any local authority in Hampshire, writes Local Democracy Reporter Jason Lewis.
But the total debt of councils across Hampshire and the Solent has now topped £2.7bn.
Nine local authorities in the region continued to have an outstanding borrowing level in excess of £100m.
The figures, collated by the BBC Shared Data Unit from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government data, suggested Hampshire County Council had a larger increase of almost £60m to £250.3m.
However, a spokesperson for the county council said this was due to an “error” by its bank and there had been a £3.4m reduction in debt from 2023/24.
Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council had the lowest debt figure, where it fell from £116,000 to £98,000 – 52p per resident.
That compares to £4,106.57 for each resident in Eastleigh, £3,247.42 in Portsmouth, £1,401.83 in Southampton, £1,613.09 in Rushmoor, £1,294,58 on the Isle of Wight, £1,166.50 in Winchester, £906.57 in East Hampshire, £757.73 in the New Forest, £717.97 in Gosport, £541,68 in Fareham, £137.78 in Hart, £44.97 in Test Valley and £22.51 in Havant.
The debt per resident for Hampshire County Council is £175.20, but the authority insists this is due to a bank error.
A Hampshire County Council spokesperson said: “Most local authorities hold debt.
“For Hampshire County Council, as one of the largest county councils in the country, serving 1.4 million residents, this must be seen in the context of a £3.1bn gross budget and the fact that we have around £0.4bn of investments.
“The data provided at the end of 2024/25 includes a significant overdraft balance we had for a single day (March 31, 2025) due to an error by our bank.
“Excluding this, the debt figures reported to government would have fallen by £3.4m between 2023/24 and 2024/25, rather than increased by nearly £60m.”
The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy financial resilience indexed rated the county council’s debt interest costs as low risk because they took up a “relatively small amount” of the revenue budget, the spokesperson added.
“Additional borrowing undertaken during 2024/25 was utilised to part fund the council’s capital expenditure programme, as detailed and approved each year in February as part of the council’s annual budget setting process.
“The new borrowing was principally related to expenditure on the council’s housing stock acquisition and development programme supporting one of our key corporate priorities.”
