The City Council is the more local of the two tiers of local government in Hereford and does not have a large bureaucratic or departmental structure so our financial resources can be directed where they are most required. The Council has set a detailed and balanced budget with no calls on its general contingency fund reserve.
For the 2011/12 Financial Year, Hereford City Council has set a net revenue budget of £712,340. Funding is transparent and accountable, and the net cost of providing the service (the budget) is provided entirely from the Council Tax payers in the City. The City Council does not receive funding from the government towards it services.
The net revenue budget will be funded from an annual charge (Council Tax) on local households. The City Council makes a mandatory demand on Herefordshire Council in the form of a precept. A precept is a charge by the parish council for the principal authority to collect income from Council Tax payers on their behalf. The precept is then collected by Herefordshire Council as part of the Council Tax levied on taxpayers in the parish. Herefordshire Council pays the precept to the City Council in two instalments. The demand will be paid in full regardless of the collection rate of the prinicpal authority.
The precept of £712,340 is divided by the taxbase, which equates to the equivalent number of Band D properties in the area, to give the Band D charge for the parish. The Band D Council Tax for Hereford City Council for 2011/12 is £40.24 per year.
The Band D Council Tax for 2011/12 remained at the same level as 2010/11. The Council agreed at its meeting on 5th October 2010 to have no increase in the tax charged.
The taxpayers in the Cit receive a combined Council Tax bill, which inlcudes the charges for Herefordshire Council, the West Mercia Police Authority and the Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue Authority, along with the parish. In the City of Hereford the charge from the City Council represents only 2.69% of the total bill to the taxpayer.
