CONWY cabinet members are indicating that they are considering increasing council tax by 10% for the third year running.
Speaking at a cabinet meeting at Bodlondeb this week, cabinet members said they would likely vote to up council tax by 10% to maintain council services.
The debate was around setting the budget for 2025/26.
Leader Cllr Charlie McCoubrey said that, despite an improved provisional 3.6% rise in its local government settlement from Welsh Government, the council was still struggling financially after years of underfunding.
Conwy received the joint lowest percentage rise in Wales with Gwynedd last year.
Cllr McCoubrey said the authority was £304 and £160 per head poorer than neighbouring Denbighshire and Gwynedd respectively. He also warned schools were struggling, and councillors heard how future budget cuts could lead to more redundancies.
“I think it is fair to say at this stage there is quite a few unknowns, so I don’t propose to propose a figure at this stage until we’ve kind of worked through where we are at,” said Cllr McCoubrey.
“But it should be noted that Welsh Government estimates that councils will be looking to raise council tax in excess of 10% – 10.2% from memory.
“I’m acutely aware that we have two really high rises, 9.9% and 9.6% (in the last two years). Council tax is the unfairest tax of all. It impacts on the poorest more. But with the economy we’ve got, the difficulty we have it’s the most vulnerable people who rely on our services the most, so that becomes a really difficult equation for us to balance.”
He added: “It is clear that future years will be equally challenging.”
Cllr Goronwy Edwards said he would be inclined to raise council tax by around 10%.
“I would like to set the council tax that meets the needs of the residents of Conwy, and that figure should be appropriate to those needs without cutting services any further than we already have,” he said.
“I think what the Welsh Government is suggesting, that we need to be somewhere in the region of 10% plus for council tax – I would like to take that on board, knowing if we don’t set a council tax that is in line with our neighbouring authorities, we will fall behind again and we will be in the same position as we were a couple of years ago where we keep on setting low council tax but are not appropriately meeting the needs of our services.
“So when it comes to setting the council tax, I will personally be in favour of going for the higher level, somewhere near the 10%, in order to achieve a balanced budget to be sustainable going forward.”
Cllr Julie Fallon said things were still ‘incredibly difficult’ due to the amount of funding provided by Welsh Government.
No final decision was made by the cabinet. The report was scrutinised and will form the basis of the draft budget and council tax increases for 2025/26, which will be presented to councillors in February.