All councillors set for say on 9.9% council tax increase

This week all councillors in Wrexham will get to have their say on the financial state of Wrexham Council, and what that means for services now and in the future.

Last week we reported how the Executive Board had signed off the budget, with the document now moving to Full Council on Wednesday for the overall green light where all councillors get to have their say and vote. There is currently no indication of any ‘alternative’ budget that has surfaced in previous years, with senior administration councillors making a point that there appears to be some kind of consensus around the budget setting process this year.

The report echos last weeks information, “The net expenditure is £318,669,885 and results in an overall increase in Council Tax at Band D of 9.9%. The levy paid to the North Wales Fire and Rescue Service has increased by £907k. This equates to an equivalent 1.3% increase in Council Tax. The increase of 9.9% therefore incorporates 8.6% in respect of Council budgets and 1.3% in respect of the North Wales Fire & Rescue Service budgets.”

Again, as readers will be well aware, the wider picture is not one of budgetary improvement with more cuts set to emerge from the Guildhall, “In respect of the medium term a shortfall of around £27.3m is projected for the two year period from 2025/26 to 2026/27 on the latest central case
assumptions.”

The £1.8m budget gap still has not been found, and the report before Full Council notes, “An amount of savings of £1.8m is to be identified and included as a target. Given the scale of funding gap, this is not an unreasonable amount to be found, and work continues to progress to identify options.”

The ‘consultation’ part of repots can often be dull, or thin, but details the bigger than usual cross-party process this year, “Workshops have been held with elected members in July, October, November and January detailing the economic context and key issues underpinning the MTFP. Lead members have been consulted through the development of the process and individual proposals.

On schools it notes, “The Schools Budget Forum and Schools have been regularly updated on the anticipated budget and provisional settlement. Engagement with Head Teachers has taken place.

Councillors on Scrutiny committees are also noted, “The budget process and implications of the provisional settlement has been considered by Customers, Performance, Resources & Governance Scrutiny Committee and the proposals in respect of school budgets has been considered by Lifelong Learning Scrutiny Committee.”

Previously Council Leader Mark Pritchard has said, “This budget is a balanced budget in delivering services, but also saving as many jobs as we can within this council and across Wales. We have to bring in a balanced budget and I think this is a balanced budget.

“I think it’s as good as we can expect at this moment in time.”

He did warn “unfortunately, even at this level, we will still have to make redundancies and we will have to do some reshaping and reorganising services across this council in the very near future”.

The full report can be found here, that gives details on the range of reserves and how they are ringfenced, as well as details such as (below) average interest rates payable on long term loans – and what they are for.

Recent related stories:

Full Council to consider ‘balanced budget’ with £1.8m of savings yet to be found

Council tax rise will be 9.9% with remaining £1.7m budget hole set to be plugged in a matter of days

Primary schools warn of larger class sizes, less staff and fewer resources amid council budget cuts

Welsh Government budget accused of “passing the buck” to councils

Cuts to education budget could “decimate local schools”

… and more.