Working For You - Video and audio transcripts

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At Coventry City Council we are dedicated to delivering the highest possible services whilst providing value for money to our residents.

So what services do we spend our money on?

Did you know we deliver more than 700 services a year costing around 870 million pounds. They include: maintaining and repairing 3,000 miles of roads, repairing 12,000 potholes, managing 17 libraries that see 750,000 visits per year, maintaining and improving five award-winning Green Flag parks, bringing you fantastic events such as the Godiva Festival, collecting 10 million bins, recycling 100,000 tons of household waste, providing free sports activities for 36,000 children across the city and supporting 5,000 older people who need our help.

 But where does the money come from?

Our funding comes from three main sources; government grants, business rates and Council Tax from residents.

Government grants help to fund services such as schools, adult education, public health and benefit payments. Alongside this we have nearly 300 million pounds to spend from business rates and Council Tax we collect each year.

Since 2010 the real-term funding we've received overall has reduced by about 100 million pounds a year but demand for nearly all the services we provide has gone up.

For example, 14 years ago we spent 52% of our net budget in three areas; social care for adults and children and housing and homelessness. Today, 80% of this budget is spent in these areas meaning we now have about 20% left to pay for all the other services. These include bin collections, libraries, street cleaning, parks, sports and leisure, street lighting and cultural and community events. 

It means we have to constantly rethink how we can maintain services every year even when our funding is reduced. Our top priority though is helping keep Coventry a place we all love that's why we're always working for you. 

Visit us online at coventry.gov.uk/WorkingForYou to find out more.