‘Council tax must rise by 28% if cuts to be avoided’
PEOPLE in Pembrokeshire would need to pay a whopping 28% more in council tax to avoid cuts to services, a council official has warned.
Pembrokeshire council’s finance boss, Jon Haswell, said the rise would be needed to maintain services in the wake of a 0.4% cut in Welsh Government funding.
Pembrokeshire is one of 15 councils around Wales that will see receives from the Welsh Government fall next year.
Last year, the council upped its council tax by 12.5% – the highest spike in Wales – but councillors said it was still the lowest council tax in Wales.
That rise was the first double-digit council tax rise in Wales since 2004.
Director of finance Jon Haswell has made the prediction based on the authority’s predicted funding from Welsh Government and what it thinks the council needs to provide services.
Mr Haswell said: “It is members that decide the budget, it’s going to be a very difficult process we go through. It’s going to be very, very difficult to achieve, it’s more difficult than last year”.
At an audit committee meeting on Thursday, Cllr Jacob Williams asked the cabinet member for finance if the authority had a plan for “mass redundancies.”
The council currently has its medium-term financial plan at “red 16 on its corporate risk register” – the highest level possible.
“It’s looking to be so bad, are there plans in place as to how this will be tackled, if things get so bad is there a plan for mass redundancies? Is there a plan to get the council out of trouble?” asked Cllr Williams.
Cllr Bob Kilmister said he could not answer with “any clarity” as he awaited officers’ reports into service prioritisation which will be reported to members when the “full picture” is known.
“A lot of ideas are being formulated and some of those ideas, I think, will fly and some won’t.
“What I can say is the status quo is not an option. We are going to have to balance the budget. Does that mean there will be impacts on employment? Yes, there will be.
“There’s no way we can meet the budget requirement we have got without affecting the number of people we employ. Have we got a clear, costed plan at the moment for that? No,” said Cllr Kilmister.
He said it was under discussion and had been given high priority.
The committee heard that the financial picture for all local authorities was “extraordinary” and was reminded that in Pembrokeshire 70% of the budget went on social services and education with cuts having “serious implications.”
Cllr Kilmister added: “We might possibly be in a better position than some others but it’s still pretty grim.”