What we spend and how we buy

CCW is a Welsh Government Sponsored Body and, though the publication of our Annual Report, and an Annual Operational Plan looking at the current financial year, CCW reports progress made and sets how we propose to allocate the resources available to us.

Our budget

Our budget for 2010 /2011 is £43million, coming almost entirely from the Welsh Government. Of this, £4.5m is ring fenced for the Assembly’s Coastal Access and Rights of Way Improvement programmes and for the Green Flag Awards and support of the Joint Nature Conservation Committee. We expect to give out a further £5million in grants to partners who deliver work that support our corporate outcomes.

At April 1st 2010, we employed the full time equivalent of 488 members of staff, which accounts for around £19m.

Our work is split over three major programmes of work:

• Action for Wildlife and Landscapes
  To safeguard and enhance Wales’ natural environment and distinctive landscapes, both within and outside of protected areas.
  Under this programme we are planning to spend around £6m.
  
• Action for People, Economy and the Environment
  To encourage more people to experience and learn about the natural environment, to understand and value the different benefits it provides for society and to become actively involved in helping to care for it.
  Under this programme we are planning to spend around £1m.
  
• Managing for the Future
  To ensure that we have the right structure, people, systems, process and resources in place so that we can be a high performing and well respected organisation at all times.
  Under this programme we are planning to spend £12.5m

Reporting back to the public

Every year, we produce an Annual Report to highlight our achievements for that year as well as providing a copy of our audited accounts. For the year ending 31 March 2010, we received £42,675,000 from the Welsh Government to continue our work. Our net expenditure at the end of the year was £42,363,000. More detailed information is available in our Annual Report.

Looking ahead

We expect our funding from the Assembly to reduce by around 25% over the next four years. So CCW, like many other public sector organisations, will need to be innovative and efficient to absorb these reductions and still deliver as best we can. We will continue our efforts to increase productivity and to cut costs wherever possible and we are participating in a shared services review with the Environment Agency Wales and Forestry Commission Wales.