Finance

Financial Information

Council Tax (Precept)

Every year, the Town Council has to decide what it wants to do in the coming year(s), the costs of the plans are estimated and the Council draws up a budget to work out how much money it needs for the next financial year. The Town Council then works out how it will pay for the budget plan (for example: grants, fees and charges, savings, Council tax). This is usually finalised at the December Council meeting. A formal document is then sent to inform Kettering Borough Council.

Kettering Borough Council co-ordinates the other demands from Northamptonshire County Council, the Police and Crime Commissioner for Northamptonshire, and the Borough Council itself. The Borough Council adds up the four amounts and works out how much each household must pay.

The amount you pay in Council Tax for 2018/19 is divided between the following:

Details of the Council tax for 2018-19 on Kettering Borough Council’s website are here.

 

Precept to fall by over £50* in 2019

At the January 2019 Council meeting, Desborough Town Council fixed its budget for the coming year (April 2019 to March 2020). The Council set a two-part budget identifying routine items necessary to run the Council’s ordinary business, and items which are added extras. The budget headings are here, and the full budget is here.

The budget totals £358,245. Of this, £76,016 forms the ordinary business items and the remaining £283,229 being additional items. Each item of expenditure will be subject to approval in the usual manner.

Having fixed the budget, the Council considered the precept (the amount of Council Tax collected by the Borough Council on Desborough Town Council’s behalf).

There is no lawful or practical method to refund unspent money from previous years. Currently, the capacity of Town and Parish Councils to set precepts is uncapped unlike Borough and County Councils. However, it is imprudent to assume that this situation will remain. If the Council had set a very low or even zero precept and the following year a cap was introduced, the Council would not be able to function. Even if no such cap was introduced, to have a low (or nil) precept then to impose a precept which is dramatically higher in subsequent years would be unwise and unwelcome in the community.

The Council decided to fund the ordinary running costs from the precept and the additional items from reserves.

The total precept is therefore £76,016. At Band D (the figure quoted most often in the press for comparison purposes) this is a reduction of £54.55 per year*, or to put it another way: last year’s was 373.25% higher.

The annual charge in Desborough for Desborough Town Council will be as follows:-

Band A: £13.31 Reduced by £36.36

Band B: £15.53 Reduced by £42.42

Band C: £17.74 Reduced by £48.49

Band D: £19.96 Reduced by £54.55

Band E: £24.40 Reduced by £66.67

Band F: £28.83 Reduced by £78.79

Band G: £33.27 Reduced by £90.91

Band H: £39.92 Reduced by £109.09

The Council Tax is made up of four elements:-

  • Northamptonshire County Council;
  • Kettering Borough Council;
  • Northamptonshire Police / Fire; and,
  • Desborough Town Council (i.e. us).

and the amounts charged by the other authorities will be known in the coming weeks.

Budget

Further details of the Town Council’s budgets for the current financial year can be obtained from the Town Clerk.

Payment Schedules

The Town Council publishes a list of payments made. These can be viewed at the meeting where they are approved/noted, at the Council’s office, in the folder in the library, in the reports for (and minutes of) each meeting, and of course on our website:

End of Year Accounts

Financial Regulations

Annual Return

Audit

Public Notice of Right to Inspect Accounts