The council is required to set a budget on an annual basis, which includes taking into account the amount of income and funding it can raise, the services it must provide and financial pressures such as inflation.
Jump straight to:
We are one of the largest employers in Denbighshire, providing the community with essential services and supporting 95,000 residents.
These services include social care for the elderly and vulnerable, the maintenance of our roads, parks and other infrastructure, planning and building control services, waste and recycling services collection, environmental health services, provision of schools and libraries as well as many other local services.
Some of our services (such as social care and environmental health) are statutory and these are set out in legislation and other services are delivered at discretion.
The budget sets out how much money we can spend on achieving our objectives within each service.
Our budget has two elements:
- A revenue budget which includes spending on the day-to-day running of services, for example salaries, contracts for services and running expenses of buildings.
- A capital plan which includes expenditure on items that will be used by Denbighshire County Council for more than one year: for example, land, buildings, vehicles and computers.
Our revenue budget is funded by:
- Revenue support grant (from Welsh Government): 62%
- Non-Domestic rate redistribution: 13%
- Council Tax: 25%
The Council receives specific grants, and other income from fees and charges which contribute towards the cost of providing council services.
Find out more about how the Council is funded.
Like all large public sector organisations, we aim to manage our resources carefully and to do more with less money.
The Council has maintained a sustainable financial position to date, but we will need to continue to deliver savings to meet anticipated budget pressures.
There are a number of factors to consider when setting our budget such as:
- Budget pressures and the potential impact on services.
- The impact of rising costs and the money we receive, on affording service delivery.
- Continuing to identify the best approach to finding savings including focus on keeping costs down.
- Continuing to ask for and listen to new ideas about cost effective ways to deliver services.
- The potential impact of inflation and energy bill increases.
- The potential impact on our residents and communities.
Denbighshire County Council is one of the largest employers in the county providing the community with essential services and supporting 95,000 residents. It aims to deliver its activity in a sustainable way for the long-term benefit of communities and their future generations.
Like Local Authorities across Wales, the Council’s financial position is currently incredibly challenging, and the need for significant budget savings is unprecedented.
Our annual budgets are set by March for the start of the financial year in April. The process of setting and monitoring budgets ensures that we can use our resources for their intended purposes.
Medium Term Financial Strategy
Our Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) enables the council to consider its finances for more than one year ahead. This allows the council to plan properly for cost pressures, savings, inflation, changes to services and investment in our priorities.
The MTFS sets out the council's strategic approach to the management of its finances and is supported by a Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP), which focuses in more detail on the forecast budget position and the underpinning financial calculations that support it.
Budget books
Our budget books provide information about council budgets and capital programmes including how much the council plans to spend on services (such as education, social services, environmental services, planning and housing).
They provide details of how much is spent on improving or replacing assets such as buildings, roads, vehicles and equipment used by services (capital) over the next few years.
Find out more information about Budget Books.
Setting our budget
We cannot finalise our annual budget plans until we know:
- How much we need to spend on delivering our services
- Additional spending pressures on our services and price increases
- Savings that we can achieve
- How much funding we will receive from Welsh Government
When we know the above sums, we can then calculate the amount of council tax for the coming year.
Denbighshire County Council has approved the budget for the 2023/24 financial year.
At a full Council meeting on 31 January 2023, members supported the budget proposals, which included raising Council Tax by 3.8%. The Council Tax level for 2023/34 was approved at the full Council meeting on 28 February 2023.