3.9 per-cent rise backed by Cabinet

At a meeting on Tuesday, January 26, councillors approved the draft Medium Term Financial Strategy which includes the 2021/22 budget.

Within the budget are £11.828 million in cuts or savings, that need to be made during 2021/22.

Finance portfolio holder, Councillor Aled Davies explained that this hike equates to an extra £53 a year on the council tax bill for a Band D property in Powys.

But the rise could have been much worse, as Council Leader, Councillor Rosemarie Harris pointed out that the starting position for setting the council tax had been five per cent.

Councillor Harris, said: “I’m concerned about the council tax collection as well, I know we have a scheme that helps those that can’t pay.

“There will be many people who will be on the line where they can just about afford to pay.

“It will put a lot of pressure on them and I’m concerned about them,

“We started off suggesting a five per cent increase and we have managed to come down to 3.9 per cent.”

Councillor Davies added: “We have pushed officers extremely hard to ensure that this increase in council tax is as low as possible.

“Having said that it does make the budget very tight so it’s imperative that all services live within their budget for the next 12 months.”

As s151 officer, head of finance, Jane Thomas, is needed to give a formal opinion on the budget proposal as a requirement of the Local Government Act.

Ms Thomas said: “The budget process this year remains robust despite the ongoing impact of the (Covid-19) pandemic on our services.

“Through integrated business planning, service leads have reviewed their services assessed the options for delivery and the achievement of the councils objectives.

“They have highlighted the financial pressures they face, and the cost reductions that can be achieved.”

Ms Thomas explained that all cut/savings proposals had been challenged and reviewed, and this provided assurance on “the completeness and robustness” of the estimates included in the budget.

She added that previous years’ unachievable savings, had now been taken out of the budget which added “resilience and robustness” to the plans

Ms Thomas added: “The need to hold an appropriate level of reserves has been brought to the fore as a result of the pandemic.

“Sound financial management this year and the funding provided by the Welsh Government has largely mitigated the financial impact on the council.

“However the pandemic and it’s impact will continue into future years.”

The cabinet unanimously approved the draft budget – which will go on to be decided at a full council meeting at the end of February.

Council tax collection and grant funding provides around £88 million of the total PCC budget,

The bulk comes from the revenue settlement grant from the Welsh Government.

Just before Christmas 2020 the Welsh Government announced a four per cent rise of just over £7.3 million in funding for Powys.

This takes the draft revenue settlement for Powys, from the Welsh Government up to £191.897 million.

Last year Powys were 14th, now they have moved up eighth out of the 22 local authorities in Wales.

With the Council Tax and grant funding added to the budget, the total figure for the 2021/22 will be £280.664 million .

The Welsh Government is due to publish it’s final budget for 2021-22 on March 2.