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Precept increase explanation

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CHAIRMAN’S MESSAGE:-

EXPLANATION OF THE RISE IN THE HORAM PARISH PRECEPT FOR 2025-26

I think it is necessary to explain the rise in the Parish Council precept for the 2025-26 financial year.

As Chairman I will be making a presentation on this topic at the Horam Annual Parish Assembly on Thursday 27th March at the Horam Village Hall from 6.45pm and this will be an opportunity for residents to ask questions and highlight their concerns.

The Parish Council budget and precept must by law be Resolved (i.e. approved) by the Full Council.

In the approved budget and Precept there are three items which together amount to 93% of the increase in the Precept:-

  1. Rental costs for the Parish Council office and meeting room.

The office rent has increased by 41%. This was due to a new agreement between the Parish Council and the Horam Club Rooms Charity who own the building.  The rental costs are still below commercial rental rates.

  1. The General Reserves budget.

Due to changes in National Guidelines the Parish Council needed to increase the General Reserves. For a Council of our size, we should now have General Reserves of between 50 – 80% of the Precept. General Reserves can only be raised through the Precept, not from CIL. The Parish Council made the decision that it was necessary to be financially sound in order to be an active council and to avoid the risks of bankruptcy in the future.  Therefore, an additional £25,000 had to be set aside to ensure the Parish Council complies with National Guidelines. Previously General Reserves had been used to part fund the Precept, at a time when National Guidelines allowed that. This had kept the precept down but had also reduced the General Reserves.

  1. A Landscape Sensitivity Assessment of the Coxlow area where the Wealden Draft Local Plan shows a proposed development of 750 dwellings.

When Wealden’s Draft Local Plan was published the Parish Council noted the strength of residents’ concerns regarding the effect this development would have on the village and on the Cuckoo Trail. Also, during the Horam Neighbourhood Plan public consultations the Parish Council had noted residents’ desire to maintain the rural aspect and nature of the Cuckoo Trail within the Parish.

Horam Parish Council had been given confidential sight of some early outline plans showing where dwellings might be built in Coxlow; some close to the Cuckoo Trail and would likely impact on some environmentally sensitive areas close to the Cuckoo Trail and Cinderghyll.

As the Coxlow development would be the biggest thing to hit Horam since the arrival of the railway, the Parish Council believed it was in the interests of the whole community to have their own impartial Landscape Sensitivity Study covering the whole Coxlow area.  This would be independent of the reports prepared for Wealden District Council which only covered Coxlow in a piecemeal fashion.

This is a narrow window of opportunity to commission the report which as a council we believe would be vital in building an independent, evidence-based case for preserving the rural nature of the Cuckoo Trail; funds of £14,000 have been budgeted for this. As such this is a one-off item in the budget so would not be in the budget for next year.

These 3 items account for 50.5% out of the 54.3% increase in the Precept. The remaining 3.8% is due to the national increase in employers’ NI contributions and marginal increases in other budget line-items and is still lower than each of East Sussex County Council, the Fire Authority and the Police & Crime Commissioner increases.

None of these decisions were taken lightly. Parish Councillors are very aware that this is public money coming directly from the residents who pay the Precept.

I can confidently state however, that Horam Parish Council sets a budget to only cover what is believed to be needed for the coming year.