Welsh council budget described as ‘reasonable’ by leader

Anthony Lewis, Local democracy reporter

The budget position of a Welsh council for next year has been described as “reasonable” by the leader.

Councillor Andrew Morgan, leader of RCT Council, was speaking as cabinet on Monday, February 23 voted to recommend its revenue budget proposals including a 4% council tax rise for 2026/2027 to full council on Wednesday, March 4 for approval.

The 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 at this point.

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, the cabinet report says.

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%.

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.

The cabinet’s proposals for car parking charges will be taken forward to full council rather than the proposed alternative from opposition councillors.

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.

Cllr Morgan said the council tax rise of 4% will be one of the lowest increases in Wales and that it was a no cuts budget as they’re not consulting on any major cuts to services.

He said education, social care and environmental services would receive the lion’s share of extra funding and these were the three areas that came out the highest in terms of the public’s priorities during the first phase of the budget consultation.

“I think it’s a reasonable position to be in. It does mean more money going into those key services alongside protecting existing services.”

He mentioned this was partly down to the fact that they got a better settlement from Welsh Government through lobbying and various parties working together as well as extra money for Welsh Government from the UK Government.

Councillor Ros Davis, cabinet member for resources, said: “I think this is a good budget with lots to celebrate in it.”