Milton Keynes Council is keen to support parish and town council’s medium-term financial planning and is seeking feedback on a new funding allocation which would provide individual parish and town councils their funding levels each year from 2016/17 to 2019/20. The consultation includes two options:

Option 1: To fix the loss of precept income due to LCTR at 2015/16 level and then each year apply the annual funding reduction to the grant amounts on an equal percentage loss of income. This would mean estimated grant levels could be provided to parish and town councils for the medium term. The only variable would be the level of national government funding, which would then be applied to parish and town councils. This method will be less accurate in terms of reflecting losses as it will be based on historic data, but will give greater certainty and predictability.

Option 2: To retain the current distribution method where grants need to be recalculated every year, once an estimate of the tax base has been completed in late October. Grant distribution is based on estimated losses, calculated from prior year precepts and the October estimated tax base. This method will more accurately reflect losses but grant levels can only be set on an annual basis. The outcome of responses will inform a recommendation to Cabinet in December 2015.

Related Documents

• Annex A – Multi-year summary of overall parish and town council funding
• Annex B - Formula for proposed grant funding allocation compared to the current funding formula
• Annex C – Proposed individual parish and town council funding over the medium- term
• Annex D - Previous grant amounts for individual parish and town councils

Questions
Question 1: Do you prefer the grant distribution method proposed in option 1 or option 2?