Ilford Limited relocate their office headquarters and photographic colour processing factory to Mobberley in Cheshire. The factory, built at the western end of Paycocke Road on the No. 1 industrial estate at Nevendon, first opened in 1957 when the company relocated from Ilford to Basildon in the early days of the new town. In 1975 the company consolidated their Basildon presence when they transferred their office headquarters to a new block on an adjacent site at Christopher Martin Road. In the years following Ilford's departure, the factory site, in reduced form and minus the landmark chimney, later became the Ilford Trading Estate, which it remains today. Their former headquarters office block was later taken over by the credit card processing company Access but was demolished around 2011 and is now the site of Costa Coffee's Roastery plant.

24th January

A new second hand 'flea' market begins every Monday at the Basildon Council run site in Basildon. 60 of the available 88 stalls were rented out at £5 a time. In summer 2006 the Monday market was closed with some stallholders now transferring to Tuesday's market.

12th March

Basildon Sports Centre at Nether Mayne opens. Run by Basildon Council and sited close to Basildon College, the new centre offers a wide range of indoor sporting activities and privately hired functions.

16th March

St. Michael's Church in Church Path, Pitsea is officially confirmed as redundant. The church, which dates from 1871, had been in very poor condition for many years; regular services having transferred to St. Gabriel's in the 1960s, and was not considered worthy of an expensive restoration. In 1998 having been fenced off from the public, the church, by now in a ruinous state, was dismantled with the exception of the 16th century tower, which was restored by the communications company Orange as a location for a mobile phone mast.

9th June

David Amess (later Sir), (Conservative) (17,516), is elected Member of Parliament for the new Basildon constituency. Following boundary changes the former Basildon seat, which had existed since 1974, saw Billericay and a Laindon Ward break away to form a new Billericay constituency. The remainder then made up the new Basildon seat. He won with a small majority of 1,379 over Labour Party candidate Julian Fulbrook. Mr. Amess, who also held a seat on Redbridge Borough Council, was standing in his second election after winning the Conservative nomination to replace Harvey Proctor, who stood down to stand in the new Billericay seat. His previous attempt, in 1979 in Newham North West, saw him lose to Labour opponent Arthur Lewis.

9th June

(Keith) Harvey Proctor (Conservative) (17,516) is elected Member of Parliament for the new Billericay constituency. Mr. Proctor had won the former Basildon seat, which had included Billericay within its boundary, in 1979 but stood down for this election choosing instead to stand in the new Billericay seat. He won the seat with a comfortable majority of 14,615 over the Liberal/Social Democrat Party Alliance candidate Patrick Bonner. The Conservative Party won the general election.

July

B148 West Mayne linking Laindon to the A127 at Dunton Wayletts completed. Construction on the new single carriageway road began in 1977 and was completed in various phases. In its creation around half of Victoria Park (Manor Park) was lost and Railway Approach was bisected with the creation of a pedestrian/cycles only overbridge.

31st July

Nevendon County Primary School closes. The school, located in Burnt Mills Road and open since 1927, closed as a result of falling pupil numbers. In the early 1950s pupil numbers at the school had increased when the first development corporation estates were built at Fryerns, but fell again following the provision of new schools. The former school is now in use as an adult education centre

1st November

Unemployed Workers Centre in The Gore, Basildon opened. The triangular building, based on a Scandinavian design, was built on a previously unused parcel of land. It is now known as the Basildon Community Resource Centre and from 2000 a registered charity. Carrying out the opening duties was the Rt. Hon. General Secretary of the T.U.C. Len (later Lord) Murray.