Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council is contacting households across the borough this summer to check their details on the electoral register are correct, ahead of the first elections for a new unitary council for north Hampshire next year.

Each year the council is required by law to contact households to check the names and addresses of residents are correct on the electoral register. Some residents may also be asked to renew their postal vote.

A data matching exercise is carried out with the Department for Work and Pensions as part of the process.

Households the council has an email address for and whose details match the Department for Work and Pensions’ records will receive an email from electoral.services@basingstoke.gov.uk next week that asks them to confirm or update their details.

Later this month, paper forms will be sent to households where the council does not hold an email address, where details do not match the Department for Work and Pensions’ records or where a property is believed to be empty.

Residents should follow the instructions in the email or letter they receive to confirm the information on the register is correct or to update it.

It is a legal requirement for people who are eligible to vote to be on the register and residents must be on the electoral register if they wish to vote.

This year’s annual canvass will give residents the opportunity to make sure they can vote in the May 2027 elections, when councillors will be elected to help establish a new North Hampshire unitary council.

The new unitary council is being created as part of the government’s plans to reorganise local government across Hampshire and the Solent area.

It will be referred to as a shadow council from May next year until the end of March 2028, as it prepares to take over responsibility for all local government services across north Hampshire from 1 April 2028.

Until that date, local services in the borough will continue to be delivered by Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council and Hampshire County Council.

Residents are encouraged to respond promptly to the annual canvass so that they do not need to be sent reminders.

From mid-October, council representatives, known as canvassers, will begin visiting properties that have been contacted but have not responded. Canvassers will carry official borough council identification and will be able to help residents update their details.

The borough council’s Electoral Registration Officer Fiona Thomsen said: “The council is required by law to contact residents each year and ask them to confirm or update their details on the electoral register. 

“You must be on the electoral register if you want to vote. Please follow the instructions in the email or letter you receive from us to check whether the details on the electoral register are correct or if they need to be updated.”

As well as giving people the opportunity to vote, the electoral register is also used by credit agencies to check the names and addresses of people applying for credit, jury duty selection and to carry out identity checks to detect fraud and money laundering.

More information is at www.basingstoke.gov.uk/elections-and-voting