Council set to consider budget with proposed 4% council tax rise

Anthony Lewis, Local Democracy Reporter

Budget proposals for a local council next year with a proposed 4% council tax hike are set to go before councillors.

Rhondda Cynon Taf Council will consider the current revenue budget proposals for 2026/2027 before the final proposals go before full council on Wednesday, March 4 for a decision.

The current proposals include an extra £1m for additional learning needs (ALN) and special schools, £6.33m in efficiency cuts, £412,000 in income from fees and charges and an increase to the local business rates relief scheme costing £230,000.

These proposals would leave the council facing a £911,000 budget gap which it plans to plug using money from the transition funding reserve, which stands at £4.74m, and £3.83m would be left in there after this use.

In the final settlement, the council received a 4.5% increase in funding from the Welsh Government and after taking into account the updated council budget requirement, the final settlement increase and the council’s updated tax base, the council was faced with a remaining budget gap of £6.42m.

Budget gap

Here’s more detail on how the council is proposing to close that budget gap.

The 4% increase in council tax equates to 91p per week for a person living in a band A property and £1.36 per week for a person living in a band D property and the report says 42% of properties in Rhondda Cynon Taf are band A.

Maintaining the level of council tax increase at 4%, in line with previous assumptions, will not impact on the remaining budget gap.

In terms of schools, the council’s proposals would see schools allocated funding next year to cover in full all of their pay and non pay inflationary costs plus service pressures and the report says this will see the schools budget fully funded for next year.

A further £1m has been included to enhance capacity across RCT’s additional learning needs and special school provision.

The report says this will see the schools budget increase by £10.4m for next year, or 4.8% but that the individual schools budget will be further adjusted to reflect transfers into the settlement and requirements for employee and non-employee costs so it will increase by £12m or 5.6%.

Efficiency measures

The report says officers have identified a range of efficiency measures which can be delivered and which would reduce the budget requirement by £6.33m and that they can provide assurance that the measures proposed can be delivered operationally, with any detrimental impact on front line services being “appropriately mitigated.”

These include general efficiencies such as cost reduction measures (£3.03m), non pay expenditure freeze (£976,000), service restructuring and vacancy management (£1.26m) and the use of external funding and recharges (£1.06m).

There is a standard 5% increase in fees and charges being proposed with some areas having their own treatment and altogether these proposals would bring in £412,000 to the council.

Responding to Welsh Government changes on business rates, RCT is proposing that the level of relief in its local business rate relief scheme be increased from £500 to £625 for the financial year 2026/27 with a view to a further increase to £750 for financial year 2027/28.

It is estimated that around 1,400 businesses would benefit from this relief and the cost of this increase would be £230,000 for financial year 2026/2027.