At its January meeting, the Parish Council approved its precept for the next financial year at the equivalent of £95.41 per year for an average Band D property. This represents an increase from last year’s figure, which was £85.49.
Nobody likes receiving an increase on their Council Tax bill, and we understand the challenges residents face in the current economic environment, so this was a difficult decision. However, we consider it necessary to provide the service residents expect and to protect Lydiard Millicent’s future, and thought it would be useful to explain how we came to this decision.
What is the precept?
The precept forms part of your Council Tax Bill, and funds the services provided by the Parish Council.
Wiltshire Council is responsible for county-wide services such as highways, waste management, children’s services and education. The Parish Council has a much more limited scope, with its responsibilities generally relating to the parish. The precept, therefore, forms a relatively small part of your overall Council Tax Bill.
How does the Parish Council calculate the precept?
The planning for this starts in the Autumn with a review of the current year's income and expenditure, and a forecast for the following year. The proposed budget is then discussed at Parish Council Meetings, usually in December and January. These meetings are open to the public to attend, and the draft budget is made available on the Council’s website.
The shortfall between expenditure and income (excluding the precept) forms the basis for our budgetary requirement for the next year. This figure is divided by the tax base (the number of properties in the parish) to determine the precept. If the budget and proposed precept are approved by the Council, then it formally asks Wiltshire Council to add the precept to residents’ Council Tax bills.
What does the precept fund?
The Parish Council receives no funding from central government. It generates some income from renting out its facilities and cemetery fees, but most of its income (roughly three quarters) comes from the precept.
The majority of expenditure, as with most authorities, is administration. This includes the salaries of the clerk, administrator and handyman, as well as legal and professional fees. The remainder of costs relate to maintenance of the Parish facilities, improvement initiatives, and, this year, to revising our neighbourhood plan.
Why has the precept increased?
Like other local authorities, the Parish Council is facing increased costs. There has also been a change to the tax base used to calculate the precept.
The biggest impact, however, is an additional cost of £15,000 to revise our neighbourhood plan. Our existing plan expires this year, and it is vital that it is updated to help ensure future development in the parish is of the right scale and in the right location. When we started work on this last year, central government funding was available to cover the cost of developing neighbourhood plans, but unfortunately, this was funding was withdrawn without notice in June 2025. Given the increasing threat of inappropriate development, we decided that the plan was so important that we would have fund the development ourselves.
The Parish Council has reviewed its overall spending and made adjustments where possible, but unfortunately, there remains a shortfall, which must be funded through the precept. While we appreciate this will be unwelcome news, you can be assured we have worked hard to keep this increase to a minimum.