Finance
THE PRECEPT 2025/26
Every year, parish councils consider their finances and determine what their precept will be for the coming year. The precept is the portion of Council Tax you pay to Tunbridge Wells Borough Council, which they collect on our behalf.
The precept for 2025/26 was agreed at our Full Council meeting on the 4th of January when councillors approved a total precept of £245,361. Compared to 2024/25, this is an increase of £19,681 or 8.5% for a band D property in Speldhurst parish.
As always, councillors try to keep increases as low as possible and extract value for money from all the services we provide. Despite our best efforts, our cost base is increasing, and this is reflected in our decision to increase the precept.
To provide some transparency on how your precept will be spent, here is a breakdown of costs:
- We will spend about £36,000 on the repayment of loans for the parish office building, and the Speldhurst chapel site which we have purchased to safeguard the long-term future of Speldhurst Community Shop and Post Office (You can read more about this loan here).
- We will spend £97,000 on personnel costs for the 4 staff we employ, and a further £24,000 on running the parish office. The pie chart in the picture below shows a breakdown of the approximate percentage of time our staff spent on different areas of work during the 2024-25 financial year.
- After covering these fixed costs, we will primarily use the remainder of the precept for various services that benefit the parish and to maintain parish council-owned green spaces.
- We also award various grants to local organisations and groups with a connection to the parish.
- We subsidize the pavilion at Langton Green Recreation Ground, where Langton Community Hub and Langton Green Community Sports Association are based, as hire income does not cover the full running costs of the building. For 2025/26 we have budgeted just under £14,000 for this.
- The council maintains some Reserves* for capital works or unplanned expenditures such as the replacement of equipment in the children's playground. A single item can easily exceed £20,000 and the recent replacement of the rubber matting surface cost over £10,000. *These reserves have decreased over the past few years as we have drawn on them to keep precept increases as low as possible.
If you would like further details about the precept and how it is spent, you are welcome to contact our Clerk Katie Neve, who will be happy to answer your questions.
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).
You can view a list of grants awarded for the year 2024-25 below.