The Council welcomed a cash flat settlement from the Welsh Government after preparing for a further decrease in funding. However due to pressures arising from inflation; staff salary costs; contract increases and a demand for services the Council still needed to find over £3million in savings.
Almost half of these will be achieved through proposals and major service reviews agreed in January 2018. All services were then asked to come forward with further savings which were considered by councillors today.
The Budget set today protects frontline services to the public and thousands of public sector jobs. A small number of posts will be lost (24), plus some agency staff, however voluntary redundancies will be sought and compulsory redundancies will be a very last resort.
Leader Nigel Daniels said they had listened to concerns of local people by voting to switch streetlights on main roads back on until midnight; by keeping the current number of school crossing patrols at the county’s primary schools and not introducing a small charge for school breakfast clubs.
Schools funding is also protected with councillors today approving to transfer additional funding of £619,000 from the Welsh Government straight into schools to help with increases in staff salaries and Free School Meals. In addition the council agreed a further £151,000 of funding for the expected increase in pupil numbers. This actually gives schools a 1.5% uplift in their funding.
A Council Tax increase of 4.9% was approved - this equates to an increase of £1 a week increase for a Band A and a £1.15p a week increase for Band B households. Due to the high number of properties in these lower band properties (85%), in previous years what people actually pay for their Council Tax is on average one of the lowest in Wales. The rise is expected to be in line with the average increases or proposed increases across Wales.
Speaking after the special meeting of the Full Council, Leader Nigel Daniels said:
“With the continued austerity forced upon us by the Government it is a tough balancing act between making the required savings whilst retaining the best possible services for our communities. The Welsh Local Government has said that local authorities in Wales are facing significant challenges in continuing to provide public services in the years ahead.
“I believe the Budget we have approved today is a fair and balanced one. Councillors have carefully considered the savings proposals in front of them and decisions have not been taken lightly. The Budget we have set both protects and enhances those services that people told us are most important to them during our public engagement programme last year.
“A Council Tax increase is inevitable in order to raise the additional income required to continue to fund both essential services and some non-statutory services that we know are important to our residents such as street-lighting and maintaining a clean environment. Out of every £1 we spend in Blaenau Gwent, only 23p of this is raised through Council Tax.”
The Council also made provision in the Budget to start returning funds to its General Reserves in order to strengthen its financial position going forward.