A BETTER-than-expected settlement from the Welsh government has lowered Pembrokeshire’s funding gap for the next financial year by millions but the county still faces a £28m challenge.
In a draft budget report before the December meeting of Pembrokeshire County Council, presented by Cabinet member for finance Cllr Joshua Beynon, members heard a projected funding gap for the next financial year of £34.1m had now been reduced to £28.1m as Pembrokeshire received a higher than expected Aggregate External Finance (AEF) settlement increase of 3.6 per cent from Welsh Government – amounting to just over £8.1m – against a predicted two per cent; the average across the 22 local authorities being 4.3 per cent.
Of the 22 authorities in Wales, Pembrokeshire ranked 15th in its rate of settlement, neighbouring Ceredigion also receiving 3.6 per cent, to rank 17th, and Carmarthenshire receiving 4.1 per cent, ranking 12th.
The report added: “In the current financial year, Pembrokeshire received an AEF settlement of £218.87m, representing 72.1 per cent of the 2024-25 Net Expenditure budget of £303.496m, the remainder (27.9 per cent) being funded by council tax.
“There is now more reliance on council tax funding due to AEF reductions during the austerity period whilst council tax increased. Council tax accounted for only 18.4 per cent in 2013-14. This trend is likely to continue whilst anticipated AEF increases are proportionally below council tax increases in future years.”
Speaking at the meeting, Cllr Beynon referenced ‘unpalatable’ options listed in an online council budget modeller giving options for the final figure for the next financial year.
“It’s not a fun time to be in local government, it’s about what we can cut, making really difficult decisions; in that [online council] budget modeller there are some unpalatable things we could do, it is more and more difficult for us to get these savings, years and years of reduced budgets mean we are finding it difficult.”
Members backed recommendations including the outline draft budget be noted, with final decisions on any budget being made by full council next February.
The funding gap figures are based around a 11.14 per cent council tax increase in the next financial year.
