Folkestone & Hythe District Council shares the highest Trust score in Kent and scores in band C for bins, planning and finances, but in band D for housing and for freedom of information on the Kent Council Scorecard’s October 2026 refresh.
Declaration: Kent Local News is edited by Daniel Dabin, who is also the leader of the GB Freedom party. The Scorecard is scored from published data under a published methodology, every council receives its scores for right of reply before publication, and every score links to its source so that readers can check it.
Folkestone & Hythe District Council, which collects the bins, decides planning applications and handles housing for about 110,000 people in Folkestone, Hythe, Romney Marsh and the villages around them, is scored on eight measures in the October refresh of the Kent Council Scorecard. It scores in band B on two, band C on four and band D on two. This is the seventh of 14 pieces, one for each Kent council.
Scores run from 0 to 100 and are banded A to F. They are never added together, because each measures a different service with different data. The full evidence for every score is on the Folkestone & Hythe District Council page.
The scores at a glance
| Measure | Score | Band | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| Refuse collection | 64 | C | 4th of 13 |
| Complaints handling | 62 | C | joint 2nd of 14 |
| Freedom of information | 52 | D | 9th of 13 scored |
| Financial health | 65 | C | joint 4th of 14 |
| Transparency | 74 | B | joint 7th of 14 |
| Planning | 67 | C | joint 4th of 13 |
| Housing and homelessness | 47 | D | 9th of 13 |
| Manifesto delivery (Trust) | 84 | B | joint 1st of 14 |
Education, safeguarding, highways and adult social care are run by Kent County Council, so they do not apply to the district.
Where it does best
On bins, the council recycled 45.9% of household waste in 2024-25, the fourth-best rate in Kent and above the England average of 42.0%, with residual waste of 404.0kg per household against 513.3kg nationally.
On planning, it scores 67, joint fourth with Dover. It decided 91.2% of major applications and 98.0% of smaller ones on time in the two years to June 2026, against England averages of 91.0% and 90.7%, and 2.0% of its major decisions were overturned at appeal, against 3.2% for England.
On complaints, it is joint second with Swale and Dover on 62. The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman upheld one of three investigations into the council in 2025-26, a rate per 100,000 residents below the district average.
On finances, it scores 65, joint fourth with Ashford. Its external auditor found no significant weaknesses, and it delivered 82% of its general fund capital programme in 2025-26. Its 2025-26 provisional outturn showed a £90k surplus, but services overspent by £3.0m, chiefly £2.4m of housing-benefit costs for temporary accommodation, and the council wrote off about £3.2m spent on the abandoned Princes Parade scheme. Its Band D council tax of £313.92 is the highest of the 12 Kent districts, as it has been for 23 years in a row.
Where it falls short
On housing, it scores 47. Affordable homes completed in the three years to March 2025 came to 65, or 3.3% of the 1,979 homes the Housing Delivery Test required, against a Kent median of 17.2%. The district delivered 57% of the homes the test required, so the presumption in favour of sustainable development applies to its planning decisions. In 2024-25, 47.3% of its homelessness prevention cases ended with a home secured for at least six months, against 51.9% for England. Temporary accommodation was lower than the rate for England outside London, at 2.23 households per 1,000.
Freedom of information
The council’s freedom of information score is held at its July level of 52. The council answered Kent Local News’s request within the legal time limit, but the figures it gave for requests answered within 20 working days (“49” for 2024-25 and “39” for 2025-26) do not say whether they are percentages or counts. Kent Local News asked the council on 2 October to clarify them. Until it does, the score rests on the council’s own published figure of 87% for 2024-25, which missed its 90% target, as it has every year since 2017-18. The Information Commissioner issued five decision notices about the council in the three years to July 2026, including one finding that it had failed to respond in time.
Promises
The Trust score of 84, joint highest in Kent with Maidstone, combines KLN’s tracking of the Green and Liberal Democrat administration’s election pledges with whether its actions match the issues residents raise. Of five pledges tracked, one has been judged: the pledge to cancel the Princes Parade development is kept. The scheme has not gone ahead, the council says no further activity is planned, and about £3.2m spent on it was written off in 2025-26. Kent Local News has found no single council resolution formally cancelling it, so the judgement rests on those actions. The other four pledges are still pending. The pledge was judged on 26 October, after the council had been sent its October scores, and the change is in its favour.
Who was in charge
A Green and Liberal Democrat minority administration, led by Jim Martin, has run the council since May 2023. Most of the data covers years under that administration; the housing-supply figures span the earlier Conservative-led administration as well. Each score on the council’s page names the administration in office during the period it measures.
What the council said
The council did not respond to the first refresh in July. It was sent its October scores on 2 October and did not respond before the deadline of 23 October.
What it means for Folkestone, Hythe and Romney Marsh
Residents can follow council news on the Folkestone and Hythe and Romney Marsh pages. The Scorecard hub has a comparison table for each measure. Tomorrow: Gravesham Borough Council.
The right of reply stays open. Any response from the council will be published word for word beside the score it concerns. Corrections are welcome at editor@kentlocalnews.co.uk.