The Council has budgeted to spend £517.527m on the provision of services to its taxpayers in 2012/13 (compared to a figure of £500.809m in 2011/12).

A further sum of £9.121m will be paid to other public bodies in the form of levies and contributions. Net expenditure is set at £315.558m.

For the Council Taxpayer, the Band D tax levied by the County Council will be £951.13 for 2012/13, which represents an increase in Council Tax of 1.97%.

Capital Expenditure
The authority intends to spend £75.2m in 2012/13 on capital projects (£71.4m in 2011/12), which will be financed from the following sources:-

Financial reserves

General reserves (or balances) are necessary to provide for levelling out of normal peaks and troughs of a year’s financial activities. It is estimated that such balances will stand at around £7.2m on 31st March 2013 (£7.3m on 31st March 2012).
The Authority has also set aside other reserves to meet specific expenditure and these are estimated to amount to £43.8m on 31st March 2013 (£45.1m on 31st March 2012).

Comparison with Government Guidelines

The National Assembly for Wales sets a Standard Spending Assessment for the Council. This is the amount which the National Assembly for Wales assesses is required to provide, in relative terms, a standard level of service in the area.

The assessment for 2012/13 and a comparison with the Council’s budget requirement is set out below: