Councillors clash over £14 million unspent budget

Labour and Plaid Cymru councillors are at odds over how best to use unspent money in the local authority’s reserves.

Plaid councillors have accused the authority of sitting on millions of pounds of reserves set aside “for a rainy day” but never spent.

The ruling Labour group, however, has warned nearly all of the £189 million held in various reserve accounts had been pledged to specific future projects – which could be at risk if the money is spent elsewhere.

£14 million reserve

Members of the council’s joint scrutiny committee met to discuss the council’s 2025/26 budget proposals.

Plaid councillor Gary Enright was one of several from his party who challenged the council’s use of reserves, telling officers accounts from the past three years showed some balances never seemed to change.

“I’m not saying spend all the reserves, but we need to take a root and branch look at this,” he said.

Plaid colleague, Cllr Colin Mann, asked why the council insisted on maintaining its General Fund reserves at a rate of 3% of its budget.

Stephen Harris, head of finance, said this was a “typical” rate for local authorities, and warned that 3% – around £14 million – would only “run this council for 13 days”.

Labour-Plaid clash

Cllr Sean Morgan, of Labour clashed with head of the Plaid group, Cllr Lindsay Whittle, over the authority’s spending and financial management.

Cllr Morgan said it was “too easy, too populist” to simply oppose the council’s savings plan, and warned critics they could be left “looking like an ostrich whose head was firmly in the sand of denialism”.

Cllr Whittle said it was the opposition’s “duty” to reject measures it deemed unsuitable, and condemned the council’s handling of empty properties, spending on consultants, and its agile working policy.

Cllr Morgan said Plaid was entitled to come up with an alternative budget, but had not done so, and talked up the benefits of agile working by pointing out other Plaid councillors had joined the meeting remotely.

Their to-and-fro was then cut short by the committee chairman, Cllr Gary Johnston, who said the purpose of the meeting was for other councillors to put forward opinions on the budget – not to listen to the party group leaders argue.

£47 million savings

Caerphilly County Borough Council has proposed a 7.9% council tax rise, a series of cuts and savings measures, and the use of some of its reserves to balance this year’s budget.

It estimates it will need to find around £47 million of savings by March 2028.

A majority of councillors voted to back the further use of reserves in this year’s budget plans.

Members of the public have until February 12 to have their say on next year’s budget proposals.