Form

CTR1: Council Tax requirement return - guidance notes for parishes

Updated 6 February 2025

Applies to England

Notes for the completion of the Council Tax Requirement data for Parish and local precepting authorities

This guidance is applicable for:

• Billing Authorities completing the CTR1 form parish submissions

The local form should be completed by billing authorities that have parishes and other local precepting authorities regardless of whether they set a precept or not.

The form has been set up on DELTA as ‘ctr1-parishes-2025-2026-multiple-apr’ and can be completed manually. The form is also in the Excel version of the CTR1 2025-26 in the ‘CTR_Local’ tab, so that the data can be completed in that and uploaded into DELTA. Authorities with multiple parishes may find it preferable to use this upload facility as parishes need to be recorded individually and aggregations will not take place in DELTA. Unless stated in this guidance, please do not amend the Excel form as this may affect the data that is uploaded into DELTA.

It is important that all authorities return the information by the due date as the DELTA system will not accept submitted returns after midnight on deadline day without a manual extension from MHCLG. If you are unable to meet this deadline, then please contact ctr.statistics@communities.gov.uk.

Forms can be saved at any time before submission. Forms can also be saved as a pdf after the form has been saved or submitted.

Notes for completion

Parish data collected on this form will be used to inform decisions about setting referendum principles for local preceptors. The intention of this section of the form is to collect individual local parish data to enable Ministers to consider appropriate principles for all authorities annually.

The figures provided in this section should be net of Special expenses and Council Tax Support Grant.

Note: Lines 1 – 4 in the Excel form are not collected in DELTA. These should be used to ensure that the data supplied in Lines 18-20 of the ‘CTR1-2025-26-apr’ DELTA form (or CTR1_Billing tab in Excel) are correct.

Using the Excel form and uploading to DELTA

Local precepting authority name

This column has been pre-filled using data supplied in the 2024-25 CTR1 return. Please add any missing parishes, Charter Trustees or Temples in the blank rows provided and amend any that are incorrect. If the parish no longer exists or never existed, select ‘yes’ against the parish under column 10 (titled ‘Delete?’). This will grey out the name and type of the parish. Please DO NOT DELETE OR INSERT lines to the table.

Where parishes are grouped for precepting purposes, all individual parishes making up the group will be counted as separate entities e.g. if parish A is grouped with parish B the count will be 2 separate parishes. So that the data can reflect this, please amend the names of the parishes involved to include the individual parish names making up the group in brackets e.g. “Parish A (Grouped with parish B)”. Then complete the precept and tax base data for just ONE of these parishes and set the rest to zero. This allows the department to keep track of all parishes even if they are grouped.

Should parishes that are grouped for precepting purposes in 2024-25 separate for 2025-26 to set their own individual precepts, record the 2025-26 precept and tax base as usual for each parish, but we would additionally require you to calculate what this would have been for 2024-25 by splitting out the precept and tax base for the group amongst the individual parishes and amending the 2024-25 data for the group itself to reflect this. This is to ensure we can accurately compare data across years.

Once you have completed the bulk upload you will be able to edit 2024-25 data by opening the individual parish records. Submitted records can be found under ‘collection requests’ on DELTA.

Type 2025-26:

This is pre-filled using data supplied in the 2024-25 CTR1 return but should be corrected to show the current position.

This column records the type of local precepting authority and will allow the department to identify Grouped parishes and Charter Trustees more easily.

The list of type includes:

• Non-precepting parish
• Precepting Parish
• Group
• Charter Trustee
• Temple

These categories are based on 2024-25 data and therefore may have changed for 2025-26 e.g. a parish that did not set a precept in 2024-25 may now have set one in 2025-26 and therefore the type will have changed from Non-precepting parish to Precepting parish. Please check that this column is a true representation of the 2025-26 council tax data for your area and amend where necessary by overwriting the description.

2024-25 precept, tax base and average Band D council tax

These columns are pre-filled using data supplied in the 2024-25 CTR1 return.

2025-26 precept and tax base

These columns will require completion with 2025-26 precept and tax base data. Please enter precept data to the nearest pound and tax base data to two decimal places.

If the parish does not set a precept or has one set for it (e.g. in a group) then please set the precept amount as 0.

If the parish is part of a group, please provide the tax base for the whole group next to one of its parishes. Leave the tax base for the other parishes in the group as 0. This is to avoid double counting of tax bases.

2025-26 Average Band D

This will be automatically calculated from the precept and taxbase columns. This column is calculated by dividing the precept by the tax base for the parish. Please do not overwrite the formulas in this column.

Delete?

Select ‘Yes’ in this column if you need to remove the parish as it no longer exists.

Validation

If the tax base for any precept in 2025-26 has increased or decreased by 10% or more, or if the average band D has increased or decreased by £20 or more compared to 2024-25 a warning will appear. If this warning appears please confirm that the change is valid by selecting ‘yes’ from the dropdown in column 11. Please also explain the reason for this change in the comment box in column 12. This validation has been put in place to help identify any incidences of data transposition that may occur from cutting and pasting figures.

Failure to complete the validation will be flagged when uploaded.

Bulk upload

• When you are ready to upload the data, save this Excel workbook as an *.xlsx file (Excel workbook)

To upload the workbook to DELTA, follow the guidance provided in the separate document ‘Data Upload Guidance’.

It is important to note that when uploading data to DELTA, some authorities may experience issues at both the upload and validation stages of the process. When experiencing an error here, the DELTA team recommends that authorities retry the file upload. If there are issues at the validation stage i.e., the system suggesting that rows are invalid, then we recommended continuing to the import stage of the upload. Once authorities have uploaded their workbook, validated the data, and started the import, the data will be processed in the DELTA system. It is worth noting that once the Import has started, this will continue in the background even if you get logged out or navigate away from the page.

Each parish will be submitted on DELTA as a separate record. Therefore, it may take a few minutes to upload if you have multiple parishes. If you need to amend data for specific parishes or provide additional validation comments you can do so by editing the individual record(s) rather than completing another bulk upload.

Manual completion directly in DELTA

Parish Information

In DELTA, please complete, save, and submit a return for each parish.

Find the Parishes data collection under open collection requests.
To start entering data you will need to untick the box to allow you to make amendments.

Local precepting authority name

The ‘Parish name’ drop down is prefilled with the names of the parishes in your local authority area using data provided on the 2024-25 form. The default setting is ‘Add new/another parish’.

For existing parishes, you should select their parish name from the dropdown list and tick the box to confirm Parish name selection. This will then allow you to enter data in the 2025-26 Financial Information section.

If you need to remove a parish because it no longer exists, please select it from the drop down and select the option to remove the parish.

If you need to add a new parish or a parish is missing, please select ‘Add a new/another parish’ in the drop down. Then you should provide the details of the parish name and parish type.

If you wish to amend the name of a parish select yes to ‘Do you wish to amend this parish’s name?’ A box will then appear where you can enter the new name.

Where parishes are grouped for precepting purposes, all individual parishes making up the group will be counted as separate entities e.g. if parish A is grouped with parish B the count will be 2 separate parishes. So that the data can reflect this, please amend the names of the parishes involved to include the individual parish names making up the group in brackets e.g. “Parish A (Grouped with parish B)”. Then complete the precept and tax base data for just ONE of these parishes and set the rest to zero. This allows the department to keep track of all parishes even if they are grouped.

Should parishes that are grouped for precepting purposes in 2024-25 separate for 2025-26 to set their own individual precepts, record the 2025-26 precept and tax base as usual for each parish, but we would additionally require you to calculate what this would have been for 2024-25 by splitting out the precept and tax base for the group amongst the individual parishes and amend the previous year’s figures (2024-25) data for the group itself to reflect this. This is to ensure we can accurately compare data across years. To do this, then tick the box to make amendments and the pre-filled figures can be edited.

Parish type  

This is pre-filled using data supplied in the 2024-25 return but should be corrected to show the current position by selecting the correct type of parish from the drop down. This column records the type of local precepting authority and will allow the department to identify Grouped parishes and Charter Trustees more easily.

If you are adding a new parish and the drop down has selected ‘New’ please update this to show a parish type from the list below:

• Non-precepting parish
• Precepting Parish
• Group
• Charter Trustee
• Temple

These categories are based on 2024-25 data and therefore may have changed for 2025-26 e.g. a parish that did not set a precept in 2024-25 may now have set one in 2025-26 and therefore the type will have changed from Non-precepting parish to Precepting parish. Please check that this column is a true representation of the 2025-26 council tax data for your area and amend where necessary.

2025-26 Financial Information part

Precept and tax base

This section requires completion with 2025-26 data on the precept and tax base. Please enter precept data to the nearest pound and tax base data to two decimal places.

If the parish does not set a precept or has one set for it (e.g. in a group) then please set the amount of the precept as 0.

If the parish is part of a group, please provide the tax base for the whole group for one of its parishes. Leave the tax base for the other parishes in the group as 0. This is to avoid double counting of tax bases.

Average band D

The average band D is automatically calculated by dividing the precept by the tax base for the parish.

Validations

Previous year’s figures are shown for the parish for guidance purposes at the end of the form. They will only become visible once the parish has been selected and confirmation button ticked.

10% change in parish tax base

This test highlights where there has been a large change in tax base from 2024-25 to 2025-26. In the past this has been due to a transposition of data when the latest year’s information has been cut and pasted into the form.

If there has been a genuine increase or decrease of 10% or more in tax base compared to last year, then please make us aware of this in the comment box.

£20 change in average band D

This test highlights where there has been a large change in average band D from 2024-25 to 2025-26. In the past this has been due to a transposition of data when the latest year’s information has been cut and pasted into the form.

If there has been a genuine increase or decrease of £20 or more in tax base compared to last year, then please make us aware of this in the comment box.

If you are prompted for a comment and are content that the figures are correct, please check the validation check box.

Additional validations

We will perform the following additional validation checks outside of the form. If the figures below do not match, we will contact you for an explanation.

• The aggregate for the total number and council tax base of all parishes (excluding Charter Trustees) that exist in the authority’s area (whether they set a precept of not) should equal line 19 column 1 and 19 column 2 on the main form.

• The aggregate for the total number and council tax base of all Charter Trustees in the authority’s area (whether they set a precept or not) should equal line 20 column 1 and 20 column 2 on the main form.

• The aggregate for the total number and council tax base of all precepting parishes, Charter Trustees and Temples in the authority’s area setting a precept should equal line 21 column 1 and 21 column 2 on the main form.

• The aggregate of local precepts should equal line 2 on the main form. These figures are for the same amount and must therefore match.

Queries

Any queries about the completion of the form should be sent by email to ctr.statistics@communities.gov.uk and addressed ‘CTR1 2025-26 – Parish query’.

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

February 2025