BLAENAU GWENT councillors have agreed their budget for 2025/2026 which includes a 4.95 per cent rise in Council Tax bills.
At a meeting of Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council on Thursday, February 20 council leader, Labour’s Cllr Steve Thomas presented the budget which includes and extra £2.44 million next year for Blaenau Gwent schools as well as £400,000 for Aneurin Leisure Trust (ALT) to help keep them running.
He also said that a funding shortfall of £1.930 million will need to be plugged with cuts, efficiencies, and income generation.
The £400,000 for cash strapped ALT had been proposed by a working group chaired by opposition Independent group leader Cllr Wayne Hodgins to look at ways of improving their finances.
Discussion of ALT then went on to dominate the meeting.
Independent group leader, Cllr Wayne Hodgins produced an alternative proposal of dropping the Council Tax increase down to 3.95 per cent.
He argued that the £400,000 allocated in the budget for ALT could be found from council coffers rather than be paid for by Council Tax.
Each percentage point of Council Tax in Blaenau Gwent is worth £400,000.
Cllr Hodgins believed that the funding for ALT could be swapped with £300,000 from the council’s reserves and a further £100,000 from the Blaenau Gwent Council Tax reduction scheme.
Cllr Hodgins said: “I can’t support increasing the Council Tax by 4.95 per cent.
“That has a large impact on the household budget people are still facing cost of living pressures.”
He believed that efforts in recent years by the council to reduce costs, make saving and efficiencies, called Bridging the Gap had been: “quite successful.”
Cllr Hodgins continued: “Our revenue reserves currently stand at £12.6 million.”
He pointed out that this year’s predicted use of reserves worth £1.5 million this year to balance the budget – could be just £80,000.
“I’m proposing not to pass on the burden to our residents,” said Cllr Hodgins.
Deputy council leader, Cllr Helen Cunningham said she was “alarmed” that Cllr Hodgins was suggesting taking money from the Council Tax reduction scheme – and that: “supports our most vulnerable and low income households.”
Cllr Hodgins said that there had been “underspends” in this area in previous years.
Deputy leader of the Independent group, Cllr Joanna Wilkins stressed there is a need for clarity around ALT.
Cllr Wilkins said: “We absolutely have to make a commitment this year of sorting this out.”
She wanted more information on what the working group that’s led by Cllr Hodgins is doing and timescales of when recommendations can be brought forward.
Cllr Wilkins: “We can’t be talking about this next year; we’ve known that the trust has been in financial difficulties for some time, and we’ve got to get a grip of it.”
As the debate continued several independent councillors backed their leader’s calls to lower the Council Tax increase.
While Labour councillors congratulated Cllr Thomas for being able to get more money from the Welsh Government in the annual settlement.
In December, the council were told they would receive a 4.8 per cent funding increase from the Welsh Government for 2025/2026.
This equates to an increase of £7.092 million.
The council estimates that it will need £198.647 million to run its services next year with Council Tax expected to produce £42.185 million.
Eventually councillors went to a vote – and took Cllr Hodgins proposal first.
This saw 11 councillors vote in favour of Cllr Hodgins proposal and 16 voted against it.
This was then flipped around as support for the budget and 4.95 per cent Council Tax increase.
