How is our Council Tax spent?

A lot has been said and written about the challenging financial climate for the public sector and with Powys County Council revealing an underspend of £1.8m for the last financial year, they have released a graphic showing where our Council Tax is spent.

There are challenging times ahead with over £40 million in savings needed to be found to balance the books over the next four years.

But in the meantime, the infographic explains the split of the council spend for 2023-24 shown as a proportion of £100 of council tax:

Schools and Social Care spent the biggest part of the council’s budget last year, equating to 68% of the overall budget. Roads, transport and recycling spent 11%. 

PCC provide education to 15,523 statutory school age learners through 72 primary schools, 8 secondary schools, 3 all-age schools and 3 special schools.

Adult Social care is provided for 1,750 people - older adults and those with mental health issues, physical and learning disabilities within long term care facilities. They also provide community-based care for 2,771 people to enable them to live well at home for longer and providing early help and prevention to a further 2,570 people to delay their need for more intense support.

Children’s services have 876 children’s cases open with a further 401 open to early help. 670 children have a care support plan and the Council is responsible for 247 Children Looked After.

The council explains that it is responsible for the upkeep of road maintenance of over 5,800 kilometres (surfaced and unsurfaced) and 14,500 street lighting columns along with 9,250 kilometres of public rights of way.

There are 1.1 million residual waste collections and 3.5 million recycling collections of over 55,000 tonnes in total across all collection streams, and a provisional recycling rate for Powys of 68.5% for 2023-24.