West Devon Borough Council recently set its budget for the next financial year. The budget details how the Council will continue delivering vital services to its rural communities for the next 12 months. Currently councils receive their funding from three main sources, Central Government Grants, Council Tax and Business Rates.
Of the Council Tax that the Borough Council collects, only 12 % goes towards paying for services that West Devon deliver, the rest goes directly to the County Council, the emergency services and Towns and Parishes. West Devon Borough Council were told how much money they would be given by Central Government, their government finance settlement. There was some good news with a one off payment of a rural services delivery grant, but also confirmation that the main government grant would be gone completely by 2018, which is much earlier than expected.
Leader of West Devon Borough Council explained: "We are delighted that the Government has recognised that pound for pound it costs rural councils more than it costs cities to deliver basic services such as waste collection. The rural services delivery grant is definitely a welcome boost, but this is just a one off grant payment and does not raise our income permanently year on year. We also know that our main government grant will disappear completely by 2018, as such we know that we will have to become much more commercially aware in order to continue delivering the services that our residents are used to.”