Finance

PRECEPT 2024/25

Every year, parish councils look at their finances and determine what their precept will be for the coming year. The precept is a small portion of the Council Tax that you pay to Tunbridge Wells Borough Council, which they collect on our behalf. 

We use this money to provide services that neither the Borough nor Kent County Council provide, to maintain several community assets and green spaces, and to support local groups, organisations, churches, and charities that keep the heart of our community beating. Councillors, of course, continue to give their time for free.

The process of deciding the precept starts in October, the final decision is made in January and the agreed amount is itemized on your council tax bill when you receive it, usually in March. 

This financial year, due to inflation, rising prices, and the energy crisis, the parish council has been faced with our costs increasing much more than we had budgeted for. We estimate our costs have risen about 12-13%, but we didn’t wish to raise our precept that much. 

For that reason, we set the precept at £195,000, which works out to a 7.4% rise for each household in our parish. This means we anticipate having to spend some of our reserves this year. We’re aware that this cannot continue in the longer term, but we feel that setting the rise lower than our cost increases is the right thing to do, considering the cost-of-living increases that are affecting us all so sharply. Further, thankfully, the tax base (the number of people who pay council tax in our area) has increased a little since last year, meaning the rise is a bit lower.

We should mention that the average amount your parish council receives from the overall Council Tax is just 3%. The breakdown of each £ of Council Tax collected and where it goes is:

• Kent Police 11p
• Parish Councils 3p
• Kent Fire and Rescue Service 4p
• Tunbridge Wells Borough Council 9p
• Kent County Council 73p

When figures are this small, the percent increase can look high, but our pounds and pence figure is still relatively low compared to the other organisations in your council tax bill. Another point to note is that we have always kept our precept low, historically, in comparison to other parish councils both locally and in the Kent area.

In addition to the 7.4% precept increase that will be used to cover day-to-day expenditures, there will be a new expense added to your council tax bill this year. This is to cover the annual repayment costs for the Public Works loan that the council will take out to purchase Speldhurst Chapel. You can read more about this loan here.

As several residents requested, we asked that the amount required from each household to repay the public works loan appear as a separate item on your council tax bill. However, this request to have the amount listed separately was not granted, and so the precept increase does appear much higher. 

It is worth bearing in mind that the amount required to repay the loan will decrease over time as we continue to pay it back. If, after reading this, you are still unclear about anything we have written, do get in touch.

GRANTS

The Parish Council will consider awarding grants to community projects. To apply for a grant please see the guidelines and application form below. If you would like a word version of the application form sent to you by email please contact the Clerk (this will enable you to type in the form which will expand to your requirements).