Finances

Overview

Local government expenditure (currently £91 billion per annum) accounts for 25 per cent of all public expenditure in the UK.

Local councils spend the largest proportions of their budgets on education services (43 per cent)
and social services (20 per cent)

Results from a recent LGA survey show 52 per cent of people believe council tax pays between a quarter and three quarters of council services. In actual fact, to provide local services, council tax
accounts for 25 per cent of all costs.

Councils in the UK spent an average of £795.33 per head of population in 2000/01.

Locally - How your money is spent

The council's net revenue budget has increased from £200.56m in 2001/2002 to £203.86m in 2002/2003.

The Council Tax covers about 40% of the total expenditure. The rest comes from income generated by the provision of services.

Education and Social Services have the highest proportion of the Council's expenditure: 41,5% of the Council's net expenditure is from the Education Department and 31% from the Social Services Department.

The table below shows the expenditure and income for the main classes of services administered by the council.


Source: LBHF
Revenue expenditure and income 2002/2003
Department Gross expenditure
£m 		% Gros income
£m 		Net expenditure
£m 		%
Education 107.51 21.4 21.27 86.23 41.5
Environment 46.30   33.68 12.62 6
Social Services 106.15 21.1 39.85 66.31 31.9
Managing Director's 20.22 4 18.02 2.20 1
Central Items 57.13 11.3 53.08 4.05 2.1
Policy &
Administration 		21.50 4.2 15.68 5.82 2.7
Housing Services 73.35 14.5 57.07 16.28 7.7
Direct Services 69.64 13.8 55.38 14.26 6.8
Total 501.80   294.03 207.77