Annual Budget 2025/2026

The Precept for the financial year 2025/2026 has been set at £137,334 which equates to £180.92 per annum for a Band D property.

This amount was agreed at Full Council on 12th December 2024, and works out at approx. £3.50 per week, or £15.08 per month, per Band D property.

This is an increase of £0.43 per week on the previous budget, a rise  due to supporting the delivery of the Flood Mitigation Scheme on Hazeley Road,  as well as responding to rising costs caused by inflation rises in the recent years along with the significant rises in National Insurance contributions which employers face.

In the previous 3 years precept increases have been kept low, when compared to inflation, and the Council has reduced costs by reviewing revenue expenditure and reallocating sums in the annual budget that would otherwise have been assigned to capital projects “savings fund”.

The Parish Council relies almost entirely on precept for income, with some additional income from Hunter Park hires, bank interest and grants for managing the Parish Farm.

The budget is summarised below, with additional key considerations the Council has taken into account when setting the budget for 2025/26/

Previous Years’ Precept

2024/25 – precept increase 4.27%  (versus inflation at 4.0%)

2023/24 – precept increase 1.21%  (versus inflation at 11.1%)

2022/23 – precept increase 2.6% (versus inflation at 5.4%)

• With no financial support from Hampshire County Council C for the financing of the much needed Flood Mitigation Scheme, this will in part need to be financed by the Parish Council and we have agreed to commit to this project, likewise the Hazeley Road Car Park Project – the final financial commitment is yet to be fully understood, but as the detailed plans progress in 2025 this will become cleaner.
• These are ambitious schemes, no other Parish Council in the district is delivering a flood mitigation scheme. However, we have to make sure these schemes are well designed and implemented professionally for long term successful use; we also will have expenditure in managing the risks associated with these projects. Although some of the money for these schemes will come from developers contributions some will also come from the public purse but they will benefit a large majority of Twyford residents.
• We have included a cost associated with the potential provision of a Public Works Loan Board (PWLB) to help fund projects the Parish Council wants to deliver – the Flood Mitigation Scheme, the car park extension at the surgery and the pedestrian crossing on the High Street near to The Phoenix.  The Council has previously used PWLB loans to contribute towards the cost of building the pavilion at Hunter Park (2000) and the purchase of Berry Meadow (2012).
• With increased contributions in National Insurance (NI)employers and decisions we have made over the year in benchmarking our employees to ensure they are fairly remunerated  the increased costs of employment have been significant. Other local authorities like Winchester City Council and Hampshire County Council have received large contributions from the Government towards offsetting the increased NI costs. Parish Councils do not receive this support from Government and are expected to directly fund all of their increased NI costs.
• Utilities costs continue to increase – as an example Southern Water has advised a 39% increase in fees in 2025/26.
• We have stabilised our expenditure across the committees including the Recreation Committee, where as an example, some of the sports hire fees at Hunter Park have increased by 10% to ensure that we continue to close the gap between the cost of maintaining sports facilities and the income received from hiring them, but still recognising  the valuable social value that sports provision at the park brings to the Twyford community.  We have also renegotiated  some maintenance contracts, which means that overall maintenance costs for the park will be less than in the previous year.
• The Parish Farm committee also had a reduction in expenditure by spreading some of the maintenance activities over several years.

Below is a link to the minutes, and reports, of the Full Council meeting when the budget was agreed.