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Local government funding

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Local government

Local Government.
Local Government in Wales consists of county and county borough councils; police, national park, and fire and rescue authorities; and town and community councils.

Finance and funding

The Welsh Government provides around 80% of funding to local authorities in Wales.
City Hall
Local Authorities are funded via a combination of revenue support grants and redistributed national non-domestic rates from the Welsh Government and via council tax which is set by each authority.

Local Authorities will receive £4.0 billion core funding from the Assembly Government for the services they deliver in 2010/11. This, the largest element of funding comes through unhypothecated grants. That is the funding that can be used by the authorities for any purpose they wish in delivering the services for which they are responsible.

The Welsh Government also provides hypothecated funding to local authorities that are for specific purposes. In 2010/11 authorities have access to more than £720 million supporting more than 50 specific grants and schemes. These  range from the Better Schools Fund to the Learning Disability Strategy and grants to promote joint working in schools to supporting pupils from ethnic minority backgrounds.

There are grants to support the Primary school free breakfast initiative, grants to support Local Transport Services and grants for the Social Care Workforce Development Programme. For a full list of all these grants and details of other Local Government funding, visit the Local Government Finance and Funding pages.