Over £400,000 Already Spent In First Five Months of Financial Year By Penrith Town Council

More than £400,000 has already been spent by Penrith Town Council just five months into the new financial year – including more than £130,000 on staff salaries.

The latest figures show £404,868.38 was spent between April and the end of August 2026, putting the Town Council's spending at almost £81,000 a month on average.

With seven months of the financial year still to run, the amount spent so far is already equivalent to 76.9 per cent of the council's £526,749 precept for the entire 2026/27 financial year.

Of the £404,868.38 recorded expenditure by the town council, £130,304.25 was spent on staff salaries including net pay, tax national insurance and local government pension contributions.

Putting staffing costs alone accounting for almost one pound in every three spent during the five-month period.

The comparison with last year's accounts reveals the scale of the current spending after Penrith Town Council spent a total of £664,604 during the whole of 2025/26.

By the end of August this year, the council had already spent £404,868.38 – more than three-fifths of the entire amount recorded across the previous 12 months and the council still has seven months left of the 2026/27 financial year.

The council's precept for the current year was set at £526,749, meaning the expenditure recorded in the first five months is already just £121,880.62 below that figure.

The £130,304.25 salary bill represents around 32 per cent of the £404,868.38 spent so far with the staffing costs expected to account for around 75% of the total spend by the end of the year.