Council tax pays for local services like schools, social care services, waste collection, street lighting, leisure & culture, emergency services and much more. 

Most of the council tax goes to the Local authority, Monmouthshire County Council, to spend on local services but parts also go to the Police and Crime Commissioner for Gwent and Community Councils.

The council also receives income from business rates, government grants, other fees and charges, all of which contribute towards the cost of providing council services.

Council tax also contributes to other costs and services including the management of council buildings, costs associated with policy, strategy and communication, the costs of running the revenue and benefits service, corporate budgets and borrowing costs.

2023/24 Budget

The council spending is split into two categories called revenue and capital.

The council’s budget plan sees an overall revenue budget for 2023/24 of £208.5 million.

The revenue budget will be financed by:

• Revenue support grant of £91.5m
• Non-Domestic rate redistribution of £31.2m
• Council Tax (MCC) of £66.9m
• Council Tax (Police and crime commissioner for Gwent) of £15.5m
• Council Tax (Community Councils) of £3.4m

The budget aims to balance increasing costs and service demand in supporting our younger and older resident’s needs, responding to the needs of the homeless and providing further investment in our highways and transport infrastructure.

The Council’s budget plan also sees a capital budget of £45.7 million for 2023/24.

This capital expenditure will look to support:

• investment in our infrastructure and transport network including flood alleviation works, and improvements to our Wye bridges;
• management of ash tree dieback disease and associated dangerous trees;
• continuation of the new 3-19 school in Abergavenny;
• investment in inclusion schemes including disabled facilities grants and access for all schemes;
• investment in our ICT and network estate to improve the resilience of our service delivery

Click here to see how your Council Tax is used to support the services we provide and to see where we are continuing to invest in our assets.

Medium term financial planning

The council’s four-year medium term financial plan (MTFP) is the foundation of our financial planning and outlines the financial challenges and risks we face in the medium term.

The next iteration will focus on the increasing challenges with sustaining and maintaining existing levels of service delivery in an environment of increasing demand and costs, combined with the risk and uncertainty around funding settlements projected over the medium term.

It will look to outline the risks, impacts and implications of addressing a medium term budget deficit, focussing on the strategies available to the Council to enable a sustainable financial model in the future that looks to support efficient and effective public services for Monmouthshire’s communities. This will be in line with the priorities outlined in the Council’s draft Community and Corporate plan and various enabling plans that feed into it.