MORE income from selling recyclable material and a jump in leisure centre usage are among the factors that have helped Mid Devon District Council come in under budget.

The local authority said its increased recycling rates to just under 58 per cent, placing it as the 11th best in the country.

That performance meant it was able to sell more recycling, earning £163,000 more than it had expected.

Its waste service will also receive a portion of the savings from a scheme that sees Devon’s councils collaborate to reduce the costs of refuse and recycling collections.

An unavoidable cost also fell – the amount the council spends on utilities, such as electricity.

With prices now dropping relative to peaks a couple of years ago, the council said it spent £313,000 less in this area than predicted.

Elsewhere, the roughly 10 per cent hike in membership numbers at its leisure centres meant the council only had to pay a £564,000 subsidy to the commercial operator compared to the £983,000 budgeted.

These factors meant the council came in just over £1.5 million under budget in its general fund for the 2024/25 financial year. Its housing-related finances are kept separately.

Nearly £1 million came from additional income it had not expected, and just over £550,000 from reduced spending.

The money will be transferred into reserves.

Cllr John Downes (Liberal Democrat, Crediton Boniface), cabinet member for governance, finance and risk, called the underspend a “major achievement”.

“I would not have believed I would be reading this a few years ago,” he said.

“This reflects the hard work that has been carried out during the year.”

He also praised the council’s collection rates of council tax and business rates.

For council tax, the collection rate was 97.6 per cent, securing more money than estimated.

It collected 99.8 per cent of amounts due from business rates, just above the 99.4 per cent from the year before.

That puts the council in the top five authorities nationally for collection of business rates.

One unexpected windfall was a £109,000 payment from the government, which it described as “long overdue” given it related to costs it incurred in 2020/21.

A further £40,000 in such payments is still outstanding, the council added.