Welsh council to raise council tax by up to 12%

Richard Evans Local Democracy Reporter

Councillors were warned that more services are likely to be cut while council tax is again set to rise in 2025 – and by as much as 12%.

At a Denbighshire council meeting at Ruthin’s County Hall HQ, Denbighshire’s cabinet member for finance said more tough decisions lay ahead.

Councillors were discussing Denbighshire’s medium-term financial plan.

The plan sets out several scenarios, depending how much the authority gets from the Welsh Government in its local government settlement, with the final figure due to be announced in February.

Highest increase

Last time around Denbighshire received the highest percentage increase in North Wales but still raised council tax by 9.34% whilst cutting frontline services.

The authority’s medium-term financial plan forecasts cost pressures ranging from £12m to £26m in the red in 2025/26 with a mid-range of £18m.

Similar ranges are forecast for 2026/27 and 2027/28.

The report speculates that, depending on how much the Welsh Government award Denbighshire, an increase in council tax could range between a 6% and 12% increase.

The report states: “A mid-range assumption of a council tax increase of 9% for 2025/26 yields an additional £6.8m which only addresses a third of the current funding gap.”

Councillors were tasked with considering the report and its projections.

Denbighshire’s cabinet member for finance Cllr Gwyneth Ellis warned the chamber.

She said: “The medium-term financial plan, and let’s be clear about the terms here, the first year in that plan is next year.

“It is the budget that we will be have to be deciding at the early part of 2025.

“The Welsh Government could give us a settlement which is way bigger than we expect. I think that is unlikely, but we don’t know, so what we are doing is we are planning for what we still know.

“If what we still know happens the way we expect it, the only way that we can balance the budget… in order to balance that budget, we are going to have to reduce some services. We are going to have to spend more on some services because we have to. They are demand-led. They are statutory.

“And then the only way to balance the budget is to increase council tax. It doesn’t say by how much, but the medium-term financial plan gives you an indication of the sort of council tax that would be required to balance the budget. That’s what you are voting for. It’s not a decision. You are not voting for a higher tax. It’s just a recognition that in order to balance the budget this is what we are going to have to do.”

“Difficult situation”

Cllr Martyn Hogg said: “Unfortunately, it is a really difficult situation, and we can all see that.

“I think it’s going to be really important for us to be able to prioritise impacts through the impact assessments, because it looks like every service is potentially at risk here, and it is going to be important for us as members to have the right information as to what these cuts will impact and who these cuts will impact and make sure the most vulnerable and minority groups are not unfairly impacted by these cuts.”

Cllr Ellis agreed but said that the impacts would likely be negative.

“If we have less revenue and are expected to do more with it, then some services will suffer,” she said.

But backbencher Cllr Chris Evans slammed Denbighshire, insisting the council wasted £55,000 a week by going over budget delivering its new recycling and rubbish collection service.

He also criticised the authority’s decision to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds buying new bin wagons.

“We only have to look at the decisions that have been made with the bins. As a budget, we are talking about how much money we get off Welsh Government. Why are we not spending that money properly, when now we are in financial difficulty with the bins?”

He added: “That is not balancing the budget – I come from a background of transport – when we are selling trucks for Denbighshire to use, refuse wagons that have not done quarter of their lives, and residents in our areas are struggling, and it’s having a detrimental outcome on them, but we are all running around in brand new vehicles.

“We’ve got workshops in Bodelwyddan to employ people to fix these trucks. Can we have a bit more forward thinking before we start diving in and spending this (money) which looks like it won’t be as much as we expect.”

The council agreed to acknowledge, endorse, review, and consider the medium-term financial strategy and plan for 2025/26 – 2027/28.