The council agreed its budget and council tax for 2008-09 on 20 February 2008. It also agreed indicative budgets and council tax levels for the following two years.
It did so after agreeing a new Council Plan for the next three years that sets out the council’s overall service priorities. It also consulted the public on its budget proposals.
These resulted in a report with several appendices to the council on 20 February. (with a link here to budget and council tax reports for 20 Feb) The council issued a press release explaining the decisions it had made.
Overall, the council spends just over £400M a year. About £50M a year of this is funded by charges to users of some council services. Around £250M a year is funded from specific and general government grants. The largest of these is the £130M a year grant for funding schools. A further £50M comes from national non domestic rate income. This leaves just over £100M to be funded by the South Gloucestershire council tax payer.
More details on the council’s budget will be available early in April in a budget book, that will set out the budget for each departments, and for the major service areas
The largest single service the council provides is education, with over 100 schools in the council’s area. Community care and housing is the next largest service. It provided a variety of services to the elderly and those with disabilities. The aim is to help them to continue to live in their own homes. The council also provides a wide range of community services. These include libraries, looking after open spaces, waste collection and disposal, road maintenance, trading standards etc.
More details of these services are provided on separate pages for the individual council departments.
More details about the council’s spending and performance are provided in the booklet 'Council spending and performance'