How we spend money

As a council, we want to keep you informed about money. Each year we are legally required to set a balanced budget, but this is getting harder. There are many things that affect our budget so this page seeks to clarify and help people understand where we get our money from and how we spend it.

We are one of the largest employers in Powys, providing hundreds of services to nearly 60,000 households across 2,000 square miles (covering a quarter of Wales' landmass!).

Some of these include:

• Social care
• Schools
• Construction and maintenance of roads, parks and other infrastructure
• Planning and building control services
• Waste collections
• Environmental Health
• Libraries
• ... and lots more!

We receive our money in three ways, from:

1. Welsh Government
2. Income we raise (through fees and charges)
3. Council tax

A huge 70% of our money comes from Welsh Government and like all public sector organisations, we manage our resources carefully and aim to do more with less money. But, there are many factors which have an impact on our budget. Some of these include: changing political structures, new legislation, service demands, the state of the economy, demographics, and events that we can't predict.

There are tough challenges ahead, but we cannot lose sight of the wide range of valuable services we deliver and the huge strides we're making to transform the organisation.

We must continue to invest in some large key projects such as new schools and housing with the help of Welsh Government grants. We are looking at new ways of generating income, sharing services with partners wherever possible, driving efficiencies, and promoting all that our unique and beautiful county has to offer!

Some people might ask how we can afford to spend money on new developments when we're cutting funding in other areas, so here's a quick rundown of the different types of funding we receive and what they are used for.