Hart Parish Council
Parish Finances
Hart Parish Council has a duty to manage its finances with care - after all, this is public money!
It has adopted Financial Regulations and other relevant policies to ensure the effective mangement of our financial resources. Click here to view:
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Setting the Budget
At the Annual Parish Meeting, members of the public, as well as parish councillors, have an opportunity to make suggestions as to what activities they consider the Parish Council should undertake in the next few years; if the majority present approve of the proposals, this then becomes the Parish Plan.
The Clerk produces an Annual Budget, which includes the costs of administering the Parish Council's affairs as well as those activities Councillors wish to undertake in the following years, usually derived from the Parish Plan, although occasionally other items may be added if deemed important. Some of these are regular features, such as cutting the grass around the village and providing Christmas trees for the Village Hall and Church; others may be irregular occurences, such as repairing the car park. The budget identifies the likely costs of each item,(based on research), grouped under relevant headings, and allows for inflation/cost of living increases.
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Funding for the proposed expenditure is mostly derived from income from activities undertaken on behalf of the Borough Council, for which the parish is paid - known as a Concurrent Payment, from grants and from the Precept - the tax paid by residents to support the parish. The precept amount is calculated by deducting the projected income from Concurrent and grant income from the total expenditure. This figure is then forwarded to the Borough Council in the form of a 'Demand' (HBC cannot refuse to give us this amount; they share the cost across all households in the parish).
Managing the money
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Ensuring that the management of the Parish Council's limited finances is done as transparently as possible, the Parish Council receives from the Clerk/RFO, monthly reports on all transactions which have occurred since the previous meeting, as well as an update against the annual budget. Copies of these reports may be seen here:
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Financial Transactions
Actual Sums Against the Budget
Year
End
The process of accounting the Parish finances
At the end of the financial year, the Annual Accounts are normally submitted to External Auditors appointed by the government, in the form of an Annual Return; it includes statements from the Parish Council as to the effectiveness of their governance and the accuracy of the financial information provided. Now, however, under the Transparency Code, if a parish council has a turnover of less than £25,000, the Annual Return is simply posted on its web-site. The External Auditor will sample a number of smaller council Annual Returns and may require us to have a full audit, for which we have to pay!
At Hart, we appoint an independent Internal Auditor to check all the information provided is accurate, and adds up correctly! His/her report is submitted to the Parish Council before the Annual Return is signed off by the Chairman, and forms part of the Annual Return.
Annual Governance and Accountability Return
​The Annual Governance and Accountability Return (AGAR) is the form which details the financial picture of the Parish Council at the end of each financial year. It gives details of all the receipts, payments made, bank balances and assets owned by the Parish Council, in that year.
The AGAR must be inspected by an Internal Auditor, whose report is presented to the Parish Council together with the Return Form. Councillors must then make specific statements about their governance and minute their approval of the information contained within the Return. The Chairman must then sign and date the form, before it is submitted to the External Auditor.
Under the Transparency Code (Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014), 2017 was the last year for which Hart Parish Council was required to have a routine External Audit. In future, unless the turnover of the Parish Council in a given year exceeds £25,000, the Clerk will simply post the completed and authorised Return onto this web-site. The External Auditors appointed by government will sample a number of Smaller Authority Annual Returns each year, and Hart will, at some point, be selected to be one of these.
For the Audit of 2024/25 we are required to submit only our signed Certificate of Exemption Form and a list of key contacts.
However, in the public interest we have also published our Financial Summary at 31st March 2025 and dates between when the accounts are available for inspection by members of the public.