Cllr Colin Mann, Deputy Leader of Caerphilly County Borough Council in a statement on Council Tax told the council:
Mr Mayor – First of all could I thank Mr Nigel Barnett, Mrs Nicole Scammell and all the officers who have put in a huge amount of work in the preparation of this year’s budget. Could I ask that these thanks be formally recorded.
I would like to move the report and in so doing ask Council to agree as follows: –
- The Revenue budget proposals for 2010-11 as set out in this report.
- That the Net level of Revenue Expenditure for 2010-11 be set at £315,986,000.
- The Band D Council Tax figure of £897.84, an increase of 2.9%, be approved.
- The proposed use of General Fund balances of £2.5m as detailed in paragraph 7.1 be approved.
- The Capital Programme for 1 April 2010 to 31 March 2013 be approved.
Members will be fully aware that the Council has followed a new budget process this year.
We have consulted the public on priorities and a total of around 1400 responses were received via Newsline and the Internet. We have responded as far as is possible to the responses.
We held a special meeting with our Viewpoint Panel, our Youth Forum and, of course, elected members have had the opportunity to attend two seminars and fully discuss the issues facing us.
In addition to a budget presentation and a full question and answer session three weeks ago all members have received draft Revenue and Capital budget proposals together with the Interim report of the Budget Advisory Group. It follows that there should be no surprises in these papers.
We have attempted to combine a Council tax increase which is as low as possible with measures to address the financial austerity which is going to hit all of the public sector in the next few years. Although a little better than expected, this year’s Rate Support Settlement from WAG at 2.28% is the worst since the council’s first budget settlement following reorganization 15 years ago.
Indeed, you will have read that there is a savings target of £25 million by 2015. Over the five years this is equivalent to a reduction of £147 for every man, woman and child in the borough. Even this huge sum may not be enough to balance the books.
Could I stress that this situation has been brought about by the prospect of severe reductions in Rate Support Grant, a symptom of the financial crisis which we are all now very familiar with. All authorities are facing the same pressures and many are in a worse position than Caerffili as will be evidenced by the string of job reductions announced by other councils recently.
It is a huge advantage that, unlike some of our neighbouring councils we have worked within our budget. I would like to thank all Directors, Heads of Department and managers for their valuable contribution to this achievement. Additionally, the authority has dealt with the very important liabilities of job evaluation/equal pay and IBT. Members will know that the council has paid out in excess of £20 million to employees in recent months which has certainly helped the local economy.
I would suggest that no member in this chamber stood for election on a mandate of cutting services. Unfortunately we are now living with the backlash of the trillions of pounds that was used to bail out the banking system and a current UK Treasury debt of around £848 billion. It is the job of all of us to run this council as efficiently as possible so that the maximum amount of resource can be used to provide much need services for our constituents, whether that be in Education, Social Services, Refuse Collection and Recycling or any of the numerous other services that we provide.
Revenue Budget
There is a need to address £4.293 million of inescapable cost pressures for the coming year. Of this sum the teachers pay award demands a sum of £1.5 million.
Service pressures need over £3 million, almost half of this – £1.45m – is in Social Services to address proven needs, both for adults and children. Landfill Tax, with an annual increase in gate fees of £8 per tonne, receives £400k.
Could I briefly draw members’ attention to Appendix 4 (page 21) of the budget papers. Under proposals for the Environment Directorate you will see a proposal to save £70,000 by closing the Rhymney Civic Amenity Site. I have been made aware by Cllr Peter Bailee of the potential problems that this closure would cause. I am asking council to agree to delete this proposal and reallocate this proposed saving elsewhere within the Directorate.
When the demand and need for welfare benefits are constantly increasing due to the recession, the Department of Work and Pensions has seen fit to reduce our Housing Benefit grant by £200,000. This is an example of one of the hidden cuts which we have to deal with in addition to the poor settlement that I mentioned earlier. This creates extra pressure on our staff who are already dealing with claims worth around £66.5 million per annum.
Members may recall that it was necessary to bring £6m forward to fund the Capital programme in the current year. Indeed prospects for Capital funding support are dire with a forecast reduction of 50% in the next five years. To prepare for this it is planned to make a contribution of £3.7 million from Revenue to Capital in 2010-11.
This money will act as a catalyst to stimulate jobs in the wider community. We have had excellent news today of Morrisions committing to a new development in Bargoed. We hope that this will act as a lever for further investment. We look for a similar benefit in the Risca area as a result of the Palace redevelopment and the Tesco investment.
£740,000 Highways Improvement Grant was initially lost in this year’s settlement. There have been two much-publicised funding announcements from WAG in response to the recent winter conditions which have had the effect of restoring around half of the £740k cut. We have earmarked an additional £400k from our own resources to help fill that gap. Together with Capital of £960k this will help the council to address the detrimental effects of extra salting on our road surfaces – potholes, of critical importance and other important infrastructure needs.
Capital Programme
More than £5 million will be invested in education in the coming year, to include over £1 million on a brand new primary school at Cwm Ifor and £900k to improve and modernize many of our school kitchens. £2.7 million will be spent on school kitchens over 3 years.
£1m will be invested into our Corporate properties via the Asset Management programme. This will continue to address facilities very important to our residents, such as Community Centres and Pavilions.
Private housing, where tenants are often living in very poor conditions, will benefit from an extra £3.3m.
Cabinet agreed some time ago that no Capital expenditure will be committed until the relevant receipt has been received and this will continue.
Given the Council decision last week to ballot our tenants in respect of the future management of their homes an extra £1.8m capital funding will be available. This funding will be subject to a future separate report.
The Medium Term Financial Plan sets the context of the forthcoming debate and I would especially like to thank the members of the Budget Advisory Group for their valuable contribution to this debate.
I urge all members to work together to address and fully engage with the difficult financial position which the authority finds itself in. As I said earlier we are not the only council to be facing this situation.
All of the public sector – Health, Police, Fire and the various arms of Central Government are facing common problems. This is not a time for political point scoring. It is a time to work together to tackle the financial pressures.
The proposed increase of 2.9% converts to less than 49p per week for the Band D taxpayer. This is a lower figure than Retail Price Index inflation at 3.7% and the Consumer index at 3.5%.
Most residents will actually pay a lot less than 49p extra as the majority of properties in the borough are in Bands A, B and C. The Band A increase is only 32p per week. As I mentioned earlier many of our residents on lower incomes do in fact qualify for benefits and will pay less.
