Budgets and expenditure | Devon County Council

Financial targets are set for all the areas of activity that are undertaken by the County Council. Day-to-day expenditure and income are referred to as revenue and investment in assets is referred to as capital.

Elected members approve all budgets of the Authority and throughout the year monitoring of expenditure and income is undertaken to ensure that spending remains under control.

The funding for the budget currently comes from several sources including council tax, business rates and government grants, fees and charges.

The Autumn Statement of 17 November 2022 and the Local Government Finance Settlement that followed on 19 December, are relatively favourable compared to recent years. This has contributed towards enabling the Authority to budget an unprecedented increase in funding for services of £114 million for 2023/24, to respond to pressures driven by high inflation and post-pandemic demand for public services.

The favourable settlement is welcomed but by itself is not enough for the Authority to set a balanced budget for 2023/24 without making significant budget savings. To respond to this challenge, a cross-organisational programme of transformation has identified £47.5 million of savings and new income for 2023/24 within service budgets.

Delivery of the transformation programme will not be easy but the level of commitment from teams working together as one organisation, and the level of assurance that has been involved in the budget-setting process, mean that the 2023/24 budget is as robust as possible and will deliver best value for the people of Devon.

Furthermore, delivery of the 2023/24 budget enables us to move forward with investment in our services to drive continuous improvement and efficiency in all areas of our organisation.

The Authority has, over many years, built up its reserves to a significant level and in recent years used these reserves to protect services and enable transformation and invest to save projects. Although now at a more modest level the reserves are still at an appropriate level to safeguard financial resilience and manage risk.

Budget

Revenue and capital outturn

Devon County Council is a precepting authority and does not administrate council tax. Enquiries about payments, rebates or benefits should be made to your district or city council.

More information

Council Tax

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