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Swansea Council is to get more central Government funding than anticipated next year but still plans to make savings and increase council tax to balance the books.
Most council funding comes from the Welsh Government, which receives it from Westminster, and Swansea is in line to get £33.4 million more in 2025-26 compared to this year, including extra money from business rates. That's good news for key departments like education and social care. The council is also expecting an additional £7 million to cover the increase that it has to pay in employer national insurance contributions from April.
However, budget papers show the authority is facing cost pressures of just under £69 million - driven by things like pay awards, rising homelessness costs and other demographic pressures - meaning steps have to be taken to cover the shortfall. It is therefore proposing to raise an extra £9.8 million in council tax, leaving it £18.4 million short. This £18.4 million will be resolved by making savings and increasing various fees and charges. For the latest Swansea news, sign up to our newsletter here
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The papers don't say what the proposed £9.8 million council tax hike equates to in percentage terms and the figure could well change between now and when councillors set the budget in two months' time. It went up by 5.99% last year - meaning Band D householders paid £1,641.95, excluding police and any community council precepts - and by 5.95% the year before that. The papers note that the Welsh Government assumed a 10% council tax rise in its spending calculations for the forthcoming year, but council leader Rob Stewart said it would not go up by that amount.
The Swansea Labour leader described the central government funding position, which became clear in the October budget, as "a lot better" than the council had been planning for. Every department, he said, would get additional funding with schools and the education service in line for an extra £22.3 million.
"Our proposed budget for the coming year would see the biggest-ever spend on education and schools of more than £226 million - a significant investment in our children's futures that will have a lasting impact for families right across the city," he said.
Opposition group leader, Cllr Chris Holley, questioned the need for so many savings given the additional government funding, and said he would like any council tax rise to be minimal. "Times are difficult - people are really struggling," he said. The Liberal Democrat councillor also wanted to see extra investment in road repairs.
The budget papers identify where the £18.4 million savings need to come from, and several of the proposals are to raise fees rather than make cuts. Schools, it said, would need to make £4.5 million of savings, while the figure for the social services department is £8.7 million. Proposals include reducing expenditure on care commissioned from the private sector, and cutting back office staff costs through "natural vacancies".
The place department, which includes roads and the environment, would need to save £2.6 million by, for example, changes to waste collection, increasing burial and cremation fees and Swansea Market rent charges, and generating more camera car parking ticket income. The in-house education department is being set a £1.7 million savings target while corporate services needs to cut its cloth by £400,000.
The papers said 15.5 full-time equivalent posts were at risk, although all efforts would be made to avoid compulsory redundancies. Any job losses at schools would be decided by schools themselves.
The budget proposals will be discussed be cabinet on January 10 and then go out for consultation. Discussions will also take place with trade unions. There will be a further budget report prior to a meeting of full council in early March when the 2025-26 budget will be set.
Cllr Stewart said the council was determined to protect services that people valued most. "In the last year we've seen record investment in schools and social care, the biggest ever support package to help residents deal with winter pressures, and huge investment in homes and housing," he said
That's on top of the billions she's already destroyed by bringing UK growth to a standstill by talking down the UK economy then unleashing the most brutal Budget in more than three decades. Today has brought even worse news. Her Budget is driving inflation back up, as companies pass the cost of her brutal £40billion of tax hikes onto consumers. Her £30billion extra spending splurge will throw further fuel onto the inflationary fire. In the euro area it's 2.3%. Before the Budget, the Bank of England was expected to cut interest rates four times this year. Now it will cut twice at most, as it battles to curb the inflation Reeves has whipped up. That's driving up interest rates and crucially - the amount we have to pay to service the interest on our massive £3trillion national debt. We fund our borrowing by issuing government bonds, known as gilts. To attract buyers, we pay them interest, known as the yield. The higher the yield, the more gilts cost us. Which is terrifying because this morning yields shot past 4.64%. When they hit 4.22% after the Liz Truss mini-Budget fiasco, Truss collapsed like a wet lettuce. Yet Reeves clings on even though they're higher today. Incredibly, Reeves plans to issue another £300billion of gilts this year to fund spending. Rising yields mean we'll pay another £6.4billion in extra interest. That's on top of the £102billion a year we already blow. This will cost taxpayers billions that could have been better spent elsewhere. And it leaves Rachel Reeves on a knife edge. The UK is borrowing to the max. That didn't stop Reeves from rewriting the fiscal rules to borrow an extra £57billion to invest in infrastructure. This leaves her with almost no margin for error. In November, I said she had just £10billion of fiscal headroom. If she gets her sums wrong, and she often does, we'll run out of money. Andrew Goodwin of Oxford Economics now reckons her fiscal headroom has shrunk to just £3.5billion, according to The Daily Telegraph. If gilt yields rise higher, that headroom could disappear altogether. Of course the UK won't actually run out of money. Rachel Reeves can always tap into her personal magic money tree. It's called the taxpayer. If growth continues to slide and bond yields rise, she'll hike taxes again in the autumn. And that black hole will be even deeper and harder to plug. Plus we'll be paying even more to borrow money, as bond markets lose faith in the UK"
I' ve just gone back to the early 70's ,others managers/eras are available . Your best of the nest of managers we've had the pleasure or not of having . Harry Gregg Harry Griffiths John Toshack Doug Livermore John Toshack Les Chappell Colin Appleton Les Chappell John Bond Tommy Hutchison Terry Yorath Ian Evans Terry Yorath Bobby Smith Kevin Cullis Jimmy Rimmer Jan Mølby Micky Adams Alan Cork John Hollins Colin Addison Roger Freestone Nick Cusack Brian Flynn Alan Curtis Kenny Jackett Kevin Nugent Roberto Martínez Paulo Sousa Brendan Rodgers Michael Laudrup Garry Monk Alan Curtis Francesco Guidolin Bob Bradley Alan Curtis Paul Clement Leon Britton Carlos Carvalhal Graham Potter Steve Cooper Russell Martin Michael Duff Alan Sheehan Luke Williams
Heavens forbid it ever came to it but we now have more civil servants than squaddies , "The Civil Service, cut back drastically during David Cameron’s time as prime minister, is now four times the size of the British Armed Forces for the first time. Britain has a public payroll of 543,000 full-time mandarins and 137,000 regular troops", Vlad must be rubbing his hands in anticipation.
One aspect of the recent National Insurance rises a will be the impact on charities, form April next year out of every pound donated to a charity 45p will be "gifted " to the treasury . Some charities need a look at themselves when it comes to the renumeration of its directorship etc but even taking that aside that's a fair chuck of money lost to whatever cause it it concerns.
Looks like the Chancellor of this great country is now in more of the sticky stuff, it appears a letter sent to her from a Tory MP Richard Holden asking her directly to clarify her position whilst holding the role of an economist, "Under government guidance, published in September, it states ministers should respond to such correspondence within 20 working days, meaning Ms Reeves should have responded by Monday December 16 at the latest" but she hasn't , its not a good look mispresenting your self at the best of times but for a senior member of a Government even less so. On a side note note google Richard the 111 ,that's an uncanny resemblance if I may say so .
Reform seem to be be on a bit of a roll ,winning local elections as they appear ,not as many as the Torys which when you consider the General Election debacle for the Tories is quite surprising but still reducing Labours influence.
Currently into my 15th hour of waiting to see a doctor and the brains trust reckon when Prince Phillip A&E Morriston will be able to take up the slack , no drunks were hurt in the making of this post
Are they really the future? With take up of new electric vehicles being much slower than predicted and the pursuit towards cleaner alternative are we seeing a slow decline in the use of electric cars. Its been announced that Northvolt , one of the wests largest manufacturers of vehicle batteries is filing for bankruptcy due to a number of factors ,one of which being BMW cancelling an order worth up to 2 billion euros.
I see that an online petition to call for another general election has now reached a million votes , not going to happen but a more oil on the fire of Starmer's tenure .
"An online petition calling for another general election to be held has surpassed 1 million signatures after thousands more signed it every minute.
The call to action was started by small business owner Michael Westwood four days ago. Mr Westwood told the Express he thinks voters feel "betrayed" by Labour and that the "promises that were told" ahead of the July election "looking nothing like" the reality.
Described as Britain's fastest-ever growing petition by commentators, the campaign has been backed by a number of political figures including Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, who said he had "never seen anything like it" after watching 750,000 signees add their names in just 24 hours.
Former Tory leadership contender Robert Jenrick said: "Over a million people have now expressed their fury that Labour lied at the general election.
"Starmer shamelessly said one thing to get elected and has done the complete opposite once in power. Nobody will ever trust a word he says again."
He used to play ( albeit briefly) with grandson and to be picked up Barcelona at such a young age and from abroad must mean he has something about him . Enzo Romano "For those of you following Enzo Romano’s story I thought I’d let you know what’s happening at the moment. Many of you know Enzo’s story but for those of you who don’t I coached Enzo for 4 years in Cardiff. In 2016 when he was just 7 years old he got selected to play for Barcelona and his family moved from Cardiff to Barcelona. The story doesn’t end there! He is now 15 years old and plays for the Wales. Despite being born in Wales Enzo has now been denied British citizenship. His family have of course appealed this decision. However if this decision is upheld it will prohibit him from wearing the Welsh shirt and playing for Wales his home team. Enzo has always had a dream of becoming a professional footballer and he always wanted to represent the country of his birth, Wales."
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