Precept 2024

The Town Council’s Finance & General Purposes Committee met earlier this month to set the budget and to discuss the Precept for the coming year.

The very difficult decision was reached to increase the Precept to an annual charge of £19.33 per Band D property and this was ratified by the Full Council at the meeting held on 25th January 2024. This equates to an increase of 20p per month per Band D property.

The decision to increase the Precept by this amount had support by the majority of councillors and was one that no one wanted to make. We realise that it will impact on everyone in our community including councillors.

The Precept has not been raised for the past three years but it has now become necessary due to rising costs, especially the huge increase in building costs for the refurbishment of 3 & 5 The Green. The money will be used by the Town Council to continue to provide events such as the Christmas lights switch on and market, the Remembrance Day Service, band concerts and annual events such as ones previously held for the Coronation and the Jubilee. The extra money is also important to allow the Town Council to continue to provide grants and sponsorship to a range of voluntary groups that enrich our community across Horsforth and projects such as play equipment.

The Town Council continues to look for other sources of funding to help ensure that in future the Precept rise will not be so large. In comparison to other Town Councils of a similar size, such as Otley, Wetherby and Morley, the Horsforth Precept is small. Your Horsforth Town Councillors are committed to providing value for money and have set the budget to reflect this.