The Council has budgeted to spend £500.809m on the provision of services to its taxpayers in 2011/12 (compared to a figure of £469.803m in 2010/11).

A further sum of £9.131m will be paid to other public bodies in the form of levies and contributions. Net expenditure is set at £312.357m.

For the Council Taxpayer, the Band D tax levied by the County Council will be £932.77 for 2011/12, which represents an increase in Council Tax of 3.74%.

Capital Expenditure
The authority intends to spend £71.4m in 2011/12 on capital projects (£78.2m in 2010/11), 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 £7.4m on 31st March 2012 (£8.4m on 31st March 2011).
The Authority has also set aside other reserves to meet specific expenditure and these are estimated to amount to £38.5m on 31st March 2012 (£44.3m on 31st March 2011).

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 2011/12 and a comparison with the Council’s budget requirement is set out below: