The Council has budgeted to spend £536.756m on the provision of services to its taxpayers in 2013/14 (compared to a figure of £517.527m in 2012/13).

A further sum of £9.241m will be paid to other public bodies in the form of levies and contributions.

Net expenditure is set at £339.372m. For the Council Taxpayer, the Band D tax levied by the County Council will be £979.70 for 2013/14, which represents an increase in Council Tax of 3.00%.

Capital Expenditure
The authority intends to spend £93.9m in 2013/14 on capital projects (£79.5m in 2012/13), 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 £6.5m on 31st March 2014 (£6.3m on 31st March 2013).
The Authority has also set aside other reserves to meet specific expenditure and these are estimated to amount to £38.9m on 31st March 2014 (£44.9m on 31st March 2013).

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 2013/14 and a comparison with the Council’s budget requirement is set out below: