What is a precept?
Parish Councils have the power to raise money by means of the precept, this is a proportion of the overall Council Tax collected by Wiltshire Council on behalf of themselves, the Police, the Fire Service, and the Parish Councils in their area. The precept pays for the running of the Parish Council and the services, and projects that it provides.
In addition to the precept, the Parish Council will occasionally receive a small proportion of Community Infrastructure Levy payments. This is a charge that Wiltshire Council can impose on new developments in their area. The money generated through the levy is expected to contribute towards the funding of infrastructure to support growth.
How a precept is calculated
A budget is set and ratified by the Parish Council at the Ordinary Meeting held in January, for the following financial year.
Consideration and development of the budget starts in December of the previous year. The development of the budget will include projected earned income, reserves and projected financial commitments for both, ongoing activities and specific projects. The precept will be the balancing amount that the Parish Council requires to deliver its work in the next financial year.
Wiltshire Council calculates the precept as an amount per Council Tax Band D property, and this is included in the overall Council Tax bill of all dwellings within the Parish area (eligible to pay Council Tax). To do this the precept is divided by the tax-base (number of households) in the parish area eligible to pay council tax.
The amount of Council Tax changes when Wiltshire Council increase or decreases its budget, or the tax-base (number of households) for the area increases or decreases.
The resulting figure is then multiplied by a proportion relative to Band D. Where larger houses are given a banding further down the scale, and therefore there is a larger council tax bill for bigger properties. Equally, a smaller home is given a banding further up the scale, which results in a smaller council tax bill.
Budget for 2025-26
The total net expenditure in the budget for 2025-26 is £9,380. This is an 18% increase in expenditure from 2024-25, which was £8,788.
The Parish Council agreed to offset a portion of this net expenditure through reducing the reserves held, and therefore ratified a precept of £7,012 for 2025-26.
It is recognised that increases are never welcome, but the Parish Council took the following points into consideration before setting this figure:
- The Parish Council has maintained the precept at £5,500 for the last 10 years and consciously has slowly eroded reserves held, to support the community through events such as Covid-19 and inflationary pressures on households.
- The Parish Council employs a Clerk as the Proper Officer, and Responsible Finance Officer, changes to the National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage rates have resulted in an increased cost of employment.
- Wiltshire Council has continued to flow down the financial responsibility of previously centrally funded activities to Parish Council, for example the cost of local elections are now borne by the Parish Council.
- The Parish Council funded the provision of an AED in the community, which requires routine replacement of batteries and electrode pads, to remain available to the community.
- Inflationary pressures on services, utilities and insurance provisions.
- The planned delivery of a first tranche of road safety improvements, in conjunction with advice received from Wiltshire Council Highways Engineers, following a significant number of residents raising concerns over the safety of the roads in our community.
Conscientious monitoring of income and expenditure over the years has enabled the Parish Council to create a stable financial base, from which to deliver services and projects for the community.
How much does the average household pay towards the Parish Council?
The precept is apportioned per household according to Council Tax banding and is presented in terms of a Band D equivalent. The 2025-26 precept of £7,012 will cost a band D household £27.78 per year, or 53p per week. This is an increase of £6.08 per year, or 11p per week.
A comparison can be made to the averaged (mean) Parish Council precept for Wiltshire of £26,880, and the average Band D household charge of £59.31 per year, or 114p per week.