County council sets 2% budget

* County Hall in Ruthin where the budget was agreed. Denbighshire County Council has set its 2013/14 budget at 2%. The authority says it has agreed the budget against a backdrop of a poorer than expected financial settlement from Welsh Government.  Capital funding from Cardiff has been cut by 15% to £4.9 million, which came on top of the 27% already cut over the past two years.  The council has also identified over £3 million in further savings over the next year while investing in education and social services.  A further £1m of extra funding will go into the Corporate Plan priorities over the next year - modernising education, highways, the economy, social care and the council itself. Councillor Julian Thompson-Hill, Cabinet Lead Member for Finance and Assets, said: "We have created a budget that protects education and social care and we have increased funding to these areas to the tune of £2.1m.  "We have already cut around £14 million from budgets over the years and we are proud of the fact that we have been able to protect frontline services.  "While the outlook for public finances is poor, it is extremely important that we provide residents with below inflation tax rises in these difficult times and we have consistently worked to keep council tax as low as possible as that is what residents have told us they want to see happening." Mohammed Mehmet, Chief Executive of Denbighshire, said: "As a council we want to protect those services that are important to people and this budget achieves this while keeping the council tax increase as low as possible and making £3m efficiencies. "The council has a strong track record of delivering savings by finding better ways of doing things. We are reducing the amount of days loss to sickness; we are scrutinising our contracts to ensure better value for money and we are being more competitive in the way in which we buy in services."

Further information on the budget will be included in Your Money, the definitive guide to council tax which will be delivered with council tax bills to properties in March.