More cash for all city council departments
EVERY council department in Swansea will get more money next financial year than currently, with education seeing the biggest increase.
Council staff will get an average pay rise of 2.75% and, according to Swansea council leader Rob Stewart, no compulsory redundancies are anticipated.
But council tax is expected to go up by 4.58%, departments will still need to make savings and generate more income, and two pots of reserve cash that have helped tide things over in recent years can’t be used in this way again.
Details of the draft revenue budget for 2020-21 will be discussed by cabinet on February 20, prior to debate and approval by full council at a meeting on March 5.
There may be some late adjustments as the Welsh and UK governments are still to publish their final spending plans for the coming year.
On the proposed council tax rise, which would mean a band D householder paying £1,406.33, Mr Stewart said: “We think it is the most reasonable level, given everything that we know.
“If we get better (government) settlements in coming years, I can absolutely see levels of council tax increases reducing.
“One good settlement does not make up for 10 years of austerity.”
Overall, the council’s net budget for 2020-21 is £468.6m, which is £25m more than currently.
The biggest share of that is going to schools (£160.4m compared to £150.7m currently), followed by social services (£120.3m compared to £116m now).
Mr Stewart said schools would also get a share of a £1m transformation fund – plus access to a £3.5m pot of money for additional repairs and upgrades.
Grants and shared NHS funding are also expected to deliver an additional social services boost of more than £3m.
The £468.6m budget is to be funded by a Welsh Government grant of £253.6m, which is £11.4m more than this year, and council tax receipts of £129.2m, which is £8.1m more than currently.
The remainder – just over £85m – comes from business rates.
“We are very grateful to the Welsh Government, but we need to see that increase sustained over the next few years,” said Mr Stewart.
The big picture is certainly more rosy than in recent years, but predicting beyond 2020-21 is guesswork, and inhouse income generation and savings measures will need to yield £9.7m.
The Swansea Labour leader also announced a new £1.7m fund which councillors could use for small-scale projects, such as upgrading toilets and new road crossings, on top of a £10,000 annual “community budget” they have received since 2017-18.
Although the revenue report going before cabinet identifies 48 posts at risk, Mr Stewart said most of these were vacant and he expected a further 50 posts to be created as a result of extra spending in 2020-21.
On the planned 2.75% pay rise for council staff, he said: “I would argue that public servants have suffered badly in terms of pay awards in recent years.”
£115M PROJECTS
SWANSEA’S indoor arena project, the construction of new schools and other capital schemes are expected to cost £115.4m in 2020-21.
The arena and associated works will absorb £42m of that sum, with new and upgraded schools accounting for £27.3m.
A further £45.6m will be spent in numerous other areas like street lighting and roads, including an upgrade of St Helen’s Road, a new 3G sports pitch at Cefn Hengoed Community School, improvements to Wind Street, and various property investments.
The £45.6m also includes £2.4m to be spent as part of a refurbishment of the Palace Theatre over the next two years, and £2.9m to continue the overhaul of the Hafod-Morfa Copperworks.
Swansea Council leader Rob Stewart said no-one could ignore the “step