Precept & Budget

The Council’s budget is called the Precept, and is the amount the Town Council asks from Eden District Council as a proportion of the Council Tax paid by householders of Penrith. The Council utilises the precept, to provide services and to deliver the Council Plan.

This link will open our current Council Plan as a PDF booklet.

The Town Council’s portion of Council Tax bill depends on which band a property is in. Properties are put into one of eight bands, A being the lowest, and H the highest, with Band D being the average.

2021-2022 Budget

Please use this underlined link to view the PDF report considered by Full Council Proposed Budget 2021-22 noting the document contains tables

Please use this underlined link to view the PDF report appendices to the proposed Budget Report Appces in tables

The Town Council has approved a budget for the year commencing on 1 April 2021 which requires a precept (or levy) of £450,069 to pay for Council services. Eden District Council is notified of the amount of the precept and collects the money on behalf of the Town Council from council taxpayers in Penrith.

The precept of £450,069 represents an annual Council Tax of £83.09 for a Band D property, which is unchanged from the previous year 2020/21.

The precept is a decrease of £4,164 from the precept levied for 2020/21. The 2021/21 budget was adjusted to remove any one-off items and to include costs of contractually committed changes to expenditure or income, with inflationary increases only applied where necessary. New service development proposals are also included within the precept amount and will notably include the recruitment of a Sustainability Officer to deliver the Council’s Climate Change Strategy, and budget to deliver the arts and cultural strategy actions, and projects aligning with the Council’s objectives.

An explanation of the precept increase is listed in the table below which may not be accessible to a screen reader. We want to ensure that everyone can access our information and we are working to improve our website. Please contact us if you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read or in an alternative format.We will consider your request and respond to you in ten working days.

	£	£
Precept		454,233
Net reductions in Planning Committee (£5,000) and CCEG (£3,000) expenditure	(8,000)
Removal of one-off addition to Town Projects budget	(15,000)
Ongoing budget for Covid-19 Response	5,000
Removal of one-off budget for preparation of Arts & Cultural Strategy	(7,500)
Re-assessment of Corporate Communications budget	(1,830)
Staffing: Over-provision for April 2020 pay award (£2,660) Anticipated 1.0% pay award April 2021 £2,380 Incremental advances £5,180 Re-assessment of Conference costs (£1,500)	3,400
Reduced Members’ Training costs	(1,020)
Reduction in Contingency provision	(3,500)
2021/22 Allowance for Growth Items	53,800
Increase in contribution from General Reserve	(27,883)
Other minor variations (net)	(1,631)
		(4,164)
Proposed Precept 2021/22		450,069