The Council recently received its provisional budget settlement from Welsh Government for the next financial year. °¬˛ćAƬ will receive an increase in its funding of 8.4% which is an additional ÂŁ10.4 million for next year. The extra funding is aimed at addressing some of the increased costs facing all councils including an increase in National Insurance contributions to cover the social care levy, funding the Real Living Wage, increasing energy costs and continuing to deal with the Covid pandemic.
Our priority is to protect front line services. The favourable settlement which is higher than expected means that we can continue to deliver the services valued most by local residents without any budget cuts in the next financial year.
The increase in funding is welcome news however it does not reverse the significant budget reductions of the last 10 years which means that we must continue to be financially prudent and work hard to meet service demands whilst balancing the budget in future years.
Balancing Our Budget
Our approach to financial planning in recent years has enabled us to balance the budget. Key to this has been taking a more commercially minded approach and thinking about different ways to meet the needs of our residents, businesses and visitors.
Through a range of strategic business reviews which include reviewing the commercial arrangement we have with our suppliers, identifying how we can improve how our residents access services and how we manage the property and land we own we have identified budget reductions of approximately ÂŁ6.7m over the next 5 years. Of this ÂŁ2.58m has been identified for 2022-23.
Future Challenges
Our approach to financial planning includes anticipating our funding situation across a 5-year period and consideration of how we will continue to fund services during that time. As part of our business planning we forecast further shortfalls in the level of funding required to deliver our priorities. In order to plan for that situation, we need to consider all income required including the levels of Council tax.
Council tax is an important element of the Council’s funding contributing approximately 21% of total income and is the main way we can fill any budget gap. Our medium term plan includes a proposal to increase Council Tax by 4% to help us build resilience for now and meet service requirements for future years.
Band D is commonly used as the standard for comparing levels of Council Tax across Wales and this gives a misleading picture for °¬˛ćAƬ. In °¬˛ćAƬ 85% of homes are in Band A or Band B and an increase of 4% equates to:
Band A 91p per week increase
Band B ÂŁ1.06 per week increase
How the Council Spends Its Budget
The majority of money we get from Welsh Government is spent on Social Services and Education. Council Tax and other income helps fund those other services that are also important to residents.
Budget Figures
We are interested in your views on our spending priorities and the proposed level of Council Tax for 2022-23. Please completed the short survey below by 14 February 2022.