A COUNCIL tax increase of 3.9% is set to go before Cardiff Council after the council cabinet gave it its approval.
This equates to around an extra £1.15 per week for a Band D household in the city.
The budget also delivers no cuts to frontline services and increased spending on schools (£14.1m to the delegated schools budgets and a further £4.1m for the retained education budgets) and services for vulnerable children and adults (a further £8.9m for children’s services and £8.6m for adult services).
However, the city still faces a £22.7m black hole in its finances which council bosses aim to fill with £7.9m raised through the council tax increase and £14.78m in efficiency savings, change programme savings and additional income.
Additionally, due to saving requirements, the budget assumes a loss of 64.2 full-time jobs.
The council tax rise in Cardiff is lower than in other authorities such as Carmarthenshire (4.9%), Merthyr Tydfil (4.95%) and Vale of Glamorgan (5.5%).
This makes it among the lowest council tax increases in Wales.
During the cabinet meeting to approve the budget going before the full council, Cllr Chris Weaver, cabinet member for finance, said he was “really proud of this budget”.
He continued: “We are very mindful of the cost of living challenges our residents face, when we put up council tax we do so only in order to support the vital services that people rely on but we do take into account the impact on people’s pockets.”
The Labour councillor also said that the council’s investment into the city now will be “paid back over the decades to come.”
The proposal follows a citywide budget consultation that almost 2000 residents took park in.
Council leader Huw Thomas called the potential budget a “mighty piece of work”.
Now that the budget has been approved by the cabinet, it will go to full council for debate on March 5th for full approval.
