Each year, we support our expenditure with four main sources of funds:

• National Park Grant from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra)
• Other government grants where available
• Income generation from sales and charges for our services
• Additional funds from grant bodies, partnerships, and donations.

During the financial year, we allocate expenditure to 8 functional headings in accordance with Defra’s Grant Funding Agreement, as shown in the following overall financial statement. The financial information covers four years:

• Resources used in 2022/23 and 2023/24
• Estimated resources used in 2024/25 (draft unaudited version - before external audit)

The November 2021 Spending Review was a three year settlement and as a result in May 2022 the Authority was issued with a three year grant agreement from Defra. This confirmed that the grant level will remain fixed at £6.669m for 2022/23, 2023/24 and 2024/25 (although an additional grant was also paid in 2024/25). In 2025/26, the Authority has been informed the revenue grant allocation will reduce by 8.2% and replaced with a Capital grant. This will put additional pressure on the day to day spending requirements of the Authority. Despite the publication of the Landscapes Review in September 2019, which recommended inflation protection for National Park Grant as a minimum, this has yet to be implemented. The medium term financial stability of National Parks therefore remains uncertain.

For the 2024/25 financial year, the Authority set a borrowing limit (the authorised limit) of £3.0m. The Authority’s external borrowing as at 31st March 2025 was £264k. The Authority’s Capital Financing Requirement, i.e. its underlying need to borrow for capital purposes, was £1.652m at 31/03/2025 (£1.075m at 31/03/2024). The implementation of IFRS16 in 2024/25 has increased our Capital Financing Requirement, as leased assets, that were previously operational leases, now sit on the Authority’s balance sheet. The Authority did not enter into any financing transactions during the year and relied upon internal cash resources.

Overall Financial Statement

Expenditure £,000	2021/22 Outturn	2022/23 Outturn	2023/24 Previous Year	2024/25 Current Year (Draft)
Conservation of the Natural Environment	5,781	5,989	8,840	9,513
Conservation of the Cultural Heritage	328	353	292	309
Recreation Management & Transport	1,871	1,824	1,023	1,176
Promoting Understanding	1,328	899	1,929	2,264
Rangers Estates and Volunteers	1,736	1,592	1,029	1,132
Development Planning	903	1,036	1,025	1,373
Forward Planning	719	569	271	307
Corporate Management & Support Services	2,828	3,073	4,006	4,063
Total Gross Expenditure	15,494	15,335	18,415	20,137
Income - sales fees and charges	(2,401)	(2,384)	(2,591)	(3,243)
Income - grants	(6,341)	(5,469)	(7,350)	(9,728)
Total Net Expenditure	6,752	7,482	8,474	7,166
Capital adjustment	(330)	(730)	(755)	(1,107)
Funding Requirement	6,422	6,752	7,719	6,655
Funded by:
Baseline National Park Grant (NPG)	6,699	6,699	6,699	6,949
Net Interest	19	159	467	464
Use of Reserves - (to) / from	(296)	(106)	557	(1,353)
Capital Expenditure	510	812	1,217	938

Notes to the Statement

1. The Authority sets a budget in February for the financial year April to March, and reports outturns in the following May or July at the Authority Meeting; variances from approved budgets are identified in this report. Full committee papers can be found under the relevant month on our website, together with a complete set of the Authority’s latest audited accounts.
2. The capital adjustment reverses depreciation, impairments and accrued pension and staff costs and adds back actual expenditure on financing capital assets, in order to arrive at the funding requirement for the year.