天涯社区

The budget and local services 2026-27

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Frequently Asked Questions

Last updated: 24 February 2026

Where does the Council's money come from?

Why is there a gap in the budget, where does it come from? 

The biggest part of the funding we receive (68%) comes from Welsh Government (WG) in the form of its Revenue Support Grant (RSG).  

Since 2008, due to reductions in funding by United Kingdom and national governments, 天涯社区 has reduced its spending by £142m so there are very few opportunities left to further cut back on spending. 

The budget gap for 2026/27 comes from things like:

• costs of energy, food, fuel and other services
• increasing demand for services such as homelessness and social care
• increasing costs from external partners e.g. North Wales Fire and Rescue and the providers of social care services.

How big was the gap for 2026/27?

In December 2025 the council was facing a forecasted £28.945m gap in its budget. 

Taking account of:

• Welsh Governments provisional settlement announcement (a 2.3% increase for 天涯社区), and
• an indicative 5% council tax increase 

this gap was reduced to £9.519m. 

Welsh Government later announced in January an increase in its settlement (from 2.3% to 4.1% for 天涯社区).

Whilst this extra funding was welcomed it still wasn’t enough to close the gap and we have been left with no option other than to make hard choices about where to cut our spending.  

To achieve a legally balanced budget the Council:

• asked all services to identify further budget reductions.
• increased fees and charges for some services.
• settled on a final Council Tax increase of 4.98% to pay for council services, with a further 0.48% to help pay for increases in our contributions to the North Wales Fire and Rescue Authority. 

Are all Councils struggling to balance the books or is it just 天涯社区?

It is well documented that all councils across the UK are facing significant financial challenges.

Does Welsh Government give each Council the same amount to fund services?

When allocating its overall budget Welsh Government assigns a portion to fund council services.  This money is then shared out between all 22 Welsh councils.  The amount each council receives is worked out through the Local Government Funding Formula.  This looks at things like the geographical size of the council, how rural it is, the size of its population, the economy of the area in terms of wealth and poverty. 

天涯社区 has the sixth largest population in Wales, however, under the Funding Formula, 天涯社区 is a low funded Council, positioned 19 out of 22 Councils for the amount of money it receives per head of population (see table below).   This is £170 lower per person than the Welsh average.  If 天涯社区 received the Welsh average, it would be around £26.5m better off financially.

Does Welsh Government give each Council the same amount to fund services?

Council	2026-27 final funding from Welsh Government	Welsh Government funding per head of population (£)	Position in Wales per head of population
Blaenau Gwent	165,530	2,439	1
Merthyr Tydfil	142,226	2,412	2
Denbighshire	229,908	2,341	3
Rhondda Cynon Taf	556,416	2,291	4
Neath Port Talbot	326,025	2,276	5
Caerphilly	398,562	2,253	6
Torfaen	205,875	2,187	7
Gwynedd	264,009	2,185	8
Newport	356,168	2,121	9
Ceredigion	153,336	2,112	10
Camarthenshire	400,106	2,097	11
Isle of Anglesey	144,585	2,092	12
Conwy	233,503	2,032	13
Bridgend	296,168	2,008	14
Swansea	502,797	2,001	15
Powys	267,568	1,981	16
Pembrokeshire	248,890	1,979	17
Wrexham	268,026	1,939	18
天涯社区	294,090	1,887	19
Cardiff	716,999	1,868	20
The Vale of Glamorgan	240,134	1,769	21
Monmouthshire	144,723	1,525	22
Total councils	6,555,645	2,057

What is the difference between Revenue and Capital expenditure? 

The easiest way to explain the difference between Revenue and Capital is in household terms, where capital buys rarely purchased, big items (a house or car) and revenue pays for the everyday things to keep them running like heating, lighting, food, diesel, etc. 

The Council uses its Capital to invest in things that will last a long time, things like improvements to school buildings or care homes.  Revenue funding, as well as paying for day to-day things such as wages, heating and lighting also pays for all of the day-to-day costs of things like weekly bin collections, care packages for older and vulnerable people, accommodation for the homeless, etc.  

Although under existing rules it is possible to use Revenue funding to help support a Capital purchase, it is not usually possible to use Capital money to pay for Revenue costs.  For example, if the Council sold a piece of land, the money received would be Capital and could only be spent on other Capital projects.  It could not be used to pay for day to day running costs or expenses.

What steps has the Council taken in recent years to balance its books?

Since 2008 天涯社区 has cut back on its spending by £142m. 

We've achieved this massive reduction by doing things like:

• significant reductions in senior and middle management and administrative and clerical posts.
• significant reductions in all service budgets, including schools. 
• reduced the number of buildings the council owns and maintains, maximising their use by rationalising space, introducing hybrid working practices and sharing with partners. 
• reviewing and renegotiating contracts to save money in the way we buy goods and services to secure competative rates and best return on investment. 
• changing the way we provide services through wholly owned trading companies - NEWydd cleaning and catering services, Gwella leisure and library services, NEW Homes affordable housing services. 
• working with local communities where there has been interest to take on and run local services e.g. Holywell Leisure Centre, Cambrian Aquatics, Cafe Isa.  
• working with a range of stakeholders including registered social landlords to make best use of all available resources and funding to create access to suitable affordable homes - the right type of home, in the right location, for the right people. 
• Double Click - a social enterprise providing social services for adults with mental health issues and learning difficulties.
• integrating services with other councils in the region to share costs e.g. education
• procuring or bulk buying with other councils to get better deals e.g. computer hardware
• annual review of fees and charges
• introduction of three weekly black bin collections - together with residents improving the county's carbon footprint whilst also saving money.

Why can’t the Council use up the money it has in reserves to help balance the books?

When we refer to ‘reserves’ we are talking about the money the Council holds each year to pay for unexpected expenses or emergencies, for example the cost of an extreme weather event. 

The Council doesn’t hold large reserves and like household savings once we dip into them to pay for something then the money is gone.   The Council's current base level of reserves is £8.985m which is only 2.44% of the Council Fund Revenue Budget.  This is the Council’s last line of defence in the event of unforeseen circumstances and is very low compared to other councils in Wales. 

Over and above the base level of reserves we have a contingency reserve which has been built up from previous years underspends.  The estimated amount available is only £2.592m which does not give the Council very much resilience in the current financial climate.

The Council also holds various earmarked reserves which are set aside for specific purposes and can be drawn down as and when the additional spend occurs.

The Council’s net budget for 2025/26 was £397m so overall available reserves equate to 2.92% of the budget. 

The budget and your Council Tax

For every 1% of Council Tax collected the Council receives approx. £1.211m in income to help pay for services. 

For 2026/27 the Council set a Council Tax increase of 5.46%

4.98% to pay for Council services, and an additional 0.48% to cover the increased costs of our contributions to North Wales Fire and Rescue Authority.

Why don’t you reduce your workforce? 

Over the past decade the Council has streamlined its workforce to such a point that many services are now running at critical capacity and any further reductions could result in unsafe levels.

Why does the Council pay commercial businesses to deliver some services it could deliver itself? 

Growing demand often means the services provided by 天涯社区 are oversubscribed or the need can be so specialist that 天涯社区 is unable to provide it, for example residential or nursing care for older people or residential/educational places for children and young people with complex needs. 

Sometimes the need is so specialist that we have no choice, however demand is often so great that the Council just doesn’t have the capacity to deliver the service itself and needs to pay commercial businesses to do it instead.   This can be very costly and with more and more people needing these services costs are going up every year.    

Over a number of years now the Council has been investing to save and by working with partners has developed and extended services to build greater capacity, for example: 

• Extra care housing at Llys Eleanor, Shotton – Llys Jasmine, Mold – Llys Raddington, Flint - Plas yr Ywen, Holywell, providing independent living opportunities for older people with the benefit of onsite care and support where needed.
• Marleyfield House, Buckley – expanded and redeveloped to provide accommodation for 64 people - doubling its capacity – supporting people with long term residential care and short stay reablement for people leaving hospital before returning to live independently at home. 
• Ty Croes Atti, Flint – a brand new facility opened in December 2025 providing long term residential and short term reablement care. 
• New housing - working with social landlord partners to deliver high quality affordable local housing.  

Whilst investing to save in this way is designed to help the council’s financial management, most importantly, increasing capacity in this way provides local people with access to valuable local services.   

Why is the need for homelessness support increasing? 

Each year more people in 天涯社区 are either at risk of becoming homeless, or are homeless and are at risk of rough sleeping.   The Council has a legal responsibility to help these people.

The continuing cost-of-living crisis along with housing market conditions is contributing to this situation. 
Many private sector landlords are selling their rental properties which not only means are there less private houses available for rent, it can also contribute to the number of people becoming homeless as they are asked to leave once properties are sold.  With fewer rental properties available there are fewer options available for people when they need to move on. 

Whilst 天涯社区 and other social landlords have invested heavily in social housing over the past few years, there is still insufficient supply to meet demand.  Over the past five years we have also found that fewer people are moving out of social housing so there are fewer vacant properties becoming available to let. 

With a lack of available affordable housing the Council has no option but to place people into temporary accommodation that is costly and often unsuitable for their needs. 

Current forecasts suggest that demand on homelessness services and accommodation will continue to increase for the foreseeable future.

All of these factors are placing significant strain on the Council’s resources both financially and practically. 

Through investing to save the council is working towards reducing homelessness costs through the development of preventative services and other forms of homeless accommodation which will be less expensive and more suited to peoples needs. 

Who pays for the North Wales Fire and Rescue Service?

North Wales Fire and Rescue Service protects residents, businesses and communities across the region through preventive and responsive services including home safety, fire prevention, extinguishment, responding to road traffic collisions, and other emergencies including severe weather events. 

Each year, the County Council must pay into a combined fire service fund to meet the annual costs of the Fire and Rescue Service.  This is known as the annual Fire Service Levy. In the financial year 2025/26 the Council paid a levy of £11.519m.

Although there is no Council Tax ‘precept’ shown on your bill for North Wales Fire and Rescue Service - part of the Council Tax you pay helps the Council fund the fire and rescue service. 

North Wales Fire and Rescue Authority is also under pressure from increasing costs and in 2026/27 North Wales councils will need to contribute more to its budget to help it balance its books.  天涯社区's 2026/27 contribution will be £12.097m.    

for more information about North Wales Fire and Rescue and the role of the Fire Authority.  

What is happening with County Hall?

On 28 February 2025, 天涯社区 stopped delivering council services at County Hall, Mold.   Employees were relocated to either Ty Dewi Sant, Ewloe or County Offices, Flint. 

A very old building County hall was expensive to run and maintain. 

Since relocating its services the Council is on course to saving £371,000 which will help towards closing the £9.529m budget gap.  

The plan will be to eventually progess to full demolition of the building, although it is too early to say when this might be.

What do you mean by ‘savings’ are you referring to ‘cuts’?

In the past we have used the term ‘savings’, to describe the different things we have been able to do to find solutions to bridge the budget gap.   By doing things differently we have been able to 'save' the council money and keep services running. 

We have done this by doing things like: 

• running efficient services and 'saving' money
• being more entrepreneurial in the way we do things
• reducing the amount of money services are given to spend
• increasing the amount of money we have to spend by charging for some services

After nearly two decades, we have exhausted all our ‘efficiency’ opportunities and there are very few, options left open to us. 

Whilst the improved settlement (4.1%) from Welsh Government was welcomed it still wasn’t enough to close the gap and we have been left with no option other than to make hard choices about where to cut our spending.