Council gives approval to RCT budget
RHONDDA Cynon Taf Council’s cabinet has given its backing to the budget plan for next year.
The council is aiming to close a budget gap of more than £6m in 2019-20 and is proposing a 3.6% rise in council tax.
Cabinet also backed a 2.9% increase to fees and charges which will make the authority £42,000. This is for services apart from school meals, parking, cinema entrance, Rhondda Heritage Park, summer and winter playing fees and the Pontypridd Lido, which will all see no price increases.
The council aims to tackle the deficit with £2.6m worth of specific grants, £121,000 in efficiency savings, £300,000 from the council tax reduction scheme, £517,000 from changes to council office accommodation, £1.03m from capital charges (lower costs of repaying external debts) and £458,000 from a materials recovery facility at Bryn Pica Eco Park.
The council also looks to release £1.8m from transitional reserves including an extra £400,000 to cover increased contributions to South Wales Fire and Rescue Service, who’ve asked for more money to cover potential increased costs of firefighter pensions, as it is not known if the UK Government will fund this.
RCT is also adding an extra £5.2m to the schools budget to help deal with increased teachers’ pay, but the council acknowledges savings will still need to be made at school level.
It comes after RCT received an 0.8% increase in its final settlement from the Welsh Government.
Council leader Andrew Morgan said: “I think the biggest thing as part of the budget first of all is that there is no significant cuts to services. We are not putting forward lists of reductions in terms of front-line delivery. We are, of course, making more efficiencies, looking at how we can deliver things differently and in some cases do it better for less.
“We have certainly been able to protect school budgets much better than what we first anticipated because we had a slightly better settlement.”
On social care, Cllr Morgan demand increases every year.
“There’s millions more which will be reallocated from other services into social care, so that is the area where any additional council tax is being reprioritised.
“The other big one for us is the council tax increase. We have today recommended 3.6% to council and it will be for full council to decide. I am still confident that this will be one of the lowest, if not the lowest, council tax rises in Wales.”
Cllr Morgan said that if this budget is agreed they will immediately start looking at how they can make efficiencies, do things differently and save money without cutting services, so that by the time next year’s Welsh Government settlement is announced, they will be in a good position to deal with any budget gap.
Addressing the potential increase in contribution to South Wales Fire and Rescue Service and increased costs of teachers’ pensions, Cllr Morgan said the funding for schools will largely cover the teachers’ pay award.
He said: “But teachers’ pension contributions, the changes to that, that’s at a national level, a UK Government level... If the UK Government doesn’t cover it, it would mean that we’d have to find £3.1m extra in the coming year, rising to £5.3m in the following year.”
He added that the fire authority hasn’t had confirmation, but local authorities largely fund the fire service, with over £10.5m of council tax money going straight to the fire service.
“Their pension contributions are also not getting covered by the UK Government as they should be. That has meant for us an additional £400,000 bill. I am just dismayed that we are in the process of setting our budgets now... and yet the UK Government still hasn’t confirmed if they are going to cover this bill.” said