Rampton Parish Council Precept 2026-2027
Financing the Parish Council
Parish Council Funding – the Precept
A parish council precept is a tax that parish councils charge their local electors to meet their budget requirements. It is added to the council tax bill and is shown alongside other additions such as police, fire and social care. The precept is based on the number of properties in a parish that are liable to pay council tax, and the amount varies depending on the spending plans and needs of each parish council.
How is the Precept calculated?
The Parish Council is required (in law) to agree a budget before it can set its Precept, and both must be agreed by the full Parish Council.
Once the Parish Council has forecast its budget requirements for the following financial year, it requests this funding from its ‘local billing authority’ – in our case, South Cambridgeshire District Council – in the form of the Precept.
SDCD then converts the Precept into an amount per Council tax payer that is added to the Council Tax bill (according to the property band) for all the dwellings within the Parish area.
The Tax Base
The Tax Base is produced from the Council Tax system at SCDC which gives a listing of all the properties in each town or parish in the district. It then adjusts this to consider any discounts that are given, for example, single occupancy, second homes or homes that are empty or exempt.
The properties are then translated into Band D equivalents using the following ratios:
Band A 6/9
Band B 7/9
Band C 8/9
Band D 9/9 (base line)
Band E 11/9
Band F 13/9
Band G 15/9
Band H 18/9
For example Band A is six-ninths of Band D and Band H is twice Band D.
Finally, the estimated number of Band D equivalents to be built in the year are added to the list. This then gives the total number of Band D equivalent properties to use for the Tax Base.
The Tax Base is used to calculate the Band D charge for each town or parish which is done by dividing the total Precept requirement by the Tax Base. This figure will be compared with the previous year’s Band D charge and supplied to the Parish.
There are a number of reasons why the Tax Base changes.
It can go up if more homes are created.
But it can go down due to more properties in the town or parish claiming for discounts – most commonly an increase in the number of properties claiming the single occupancy discount.
Other factors will include homes being demolished, becoming empty, becoming second homes, boundary changes or even a change in collection date.
Calculation – Rampton Parish Council:
Year 2026-27
Precept request £17,000 / 210.50 Band D = £80.76.