City householders hit by floods to be exempt from council tax

SWANSEA householders affected by recent flooding won’t pay council tax for up to a year. Council leader Rob Stewart said a six-month exemption would apply for people whose homes were flooded, with a 12-month exemption for people who have had to move out because of the damage caused.

This would be on top of a Welsh Government pledge of £500 for every affected household – or £1,000 for those without home insurance cover.

His announcement at a meeting of full council came before councillors set the budget for 2020-21, which included a 4.58% council tax rise.

Swansea escaped the worst of Storm Dennis but more than 40 properties were flooded in Gorseinon, and a further four in Penllergaer.

Cllr Stewart praised Gorseinon councillor Kelly Roberts for her hands-on efforts in the aftermath.

“You have set an example to us all,” said the Swansea Labour leader.

The council’s core budget for dayto-day services next year will be £468.6m, £25m more than currently.

This will be financed by an extra £17m from the Welsh Government and an extra £8m from council tax.

However, the council is said to be facing £35m of additional cost pressures – such as staff pay and demographic demands – meaning that nearly £10m of savings and incomegenerating measures will be enacted.

There was cross-party support for the extra money coming from central government which, combined with the administration’s spending priorities, will boost schools spending by £9.7m and social services by £8m.

But there was disagreement over the 4.58% council tax hike.

The Liberal Democrat-Independent opposition put forward a costed amendment to reduce the council tax rise to 3.56%, worth £1.26m.

Lib-Dem leader Cllr Chris Holley said: “When we have got a bit more money, surely we should help the council tax-payers as well? That would be a gesture.”

Independent councillor Wendy

Fitzgerald added: “It is completely unacceptable that council tax goes up year after year – until the election.”

Labour members hit back, with Cllr Stewart saying the previous Liberal Democrat-led administration had frozen council tax in election year. He said this had created a £40m loss of revenue over the subsequent seven years.

Other Labour councillors criticised the spending measures which the opposition proposed to cancel in order to fund some of the amendment.

And there appeared to be some confusion about where most of the money would come from.

The amendment said £1m of the £1.26m would come from general reserves, via a contingency fund. The Lib-Dems said their intention was to divert this £1m from going into a capital equalisation reserve, which the administration has been building up to pay back borrowing costs for the Swansea indoor arena project.

Cllr Peter Black, of the Lib-Dems, said: “You are putting up council tax now to fund borrowing in advance.” Cllr Stewart strongly rejected this. “There is not a penny being used to repay borrowing,” he said.

The Labour leader said half the council tax rise would fund cost increases, with the other half going to schools and community projects.

The revenue budget was approved by a majority, with opposition councillors abstaining.