On 20 January 2025, Exminster Parish Council (the Council) set the budget and precept for the 2025-26 Financial Year at £88.70 per Band D equivalent property (the average property for Council Tax). This is an increase of 2.5%, of which around half of it has been caused by the increase in Employer National Insurance contributions from April 2025.
(It should be noted that the Parish precept is only a fraction of the total Council Tax bill. Devon County Council takes the lions’ share with Teignbridge District Council, and the Police and Fire services the remainder. Any of these authorities can increase its portion and the overall bill will reflect that).
The brief beneath explains how this has been achieved.
- Expenditure review – Each cost line in the budget has been examined and wherever possible increases kept to a minimum. Generally, inflation has been set at 5%, which is acknowledged as prudent. In addition, we have to allow for staff pay scale increments, which is standard practice for most of the public sector.
- Reserves – The Council is expected to carry reserves or provisions to cover future one-off costs. The 2025/26 Budget does not include any allowance for increasing these reserves because the Council has decided that they are sufficient at this time but will be reviewed in the future. (It should be noted that Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) is one reserve held by the Council, but it is an entirely separate stream of income to the Precept generated by housing development. CIL receipts can be used to support the development of the area (Parish) by funding the provision, improvement, replacement, operation, or maintenance of infrastructure; or anything else that is concerned with addressing the demands that housing development places on the area. The Council received advice in 2023 that ‘housing development’ includes past development. Therefore, wherever possible, expenditure is charged to CIL rather than the Precept. However, CIL receipts will not last forever and the Council wants to get the most benefit for its residents whilst it lasts. To this end, the Refresh of the Exminster Neighbourhood Development Plan, currently entering its final stages, will seek to identify policies and projects using in the first instance CIL receipts. In the longer term, this may mean that the Precept must rise but only if the benefits to the residents clearly justify it.)
- Housing development – The third reason for being able to keep increases to the Precept below the prevailing inflation rates is the additional housing in the Parish. More housing means the central cost of running the Parish can be spread over more Band D Equivalent properties.
Housing development around Exminster Village (e.g. Milbury Reach) has helped the Council to keep increases in the Precept below the rate of inflation: 11% between 2013 and 2024 compared to 36% in the Consumer Price Index (All Items).
More recently, the Parish has had the urban development in Matford. Initially, there were only relatively small increases in the number of Band D equivalent properties but more recently there have been larger increases. The range of services provided by the Council to the Matford development is much smaller than that provided to the rest of the Parish. It is the view of the Council that money needs to be set aside for the specific requirements of the residents of the Matford development. A relatively small sum was set aside at the end of 2023/24 and larger sums will be set aside in 2024/25 and 2025/26. When producing the 2026/27 Budget it will be necessary to have an expenditure line to cover these set asides.
The future
The size and share of the Parish in the future is uncertain because of the Government’s intention to have more unitary authorities (like Plymouth and Torbay are) instead of district councils and Devon County Council. It is possible that the Parish could be split between two unitary authorities. Who knows? But it does complicate forward planning.
More information on Parish Council finances can be found within our meeting minutes and on the dedicated finance page.