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Commenting on the draft budget published this week by the Labour-Plaid Assembly Government, Welsh Liberal Democrat Finance spokesperson Jenny Randerson said:
"This draft budget presents a raw deal for local authorities once again. When keeping council tax low is the one way that the WAG can help families during the credit crunch, it's disappointing to see local authorities getting a settlement which is 2% below inflation.
"The danger is that local authorities will once again face the impossible choice between cutting services or raising council tax - as a direct result of this Labour-Plaid government's neglect of local authorities.
"Far from the fair deal for Welsh taxpayers we were hoping to see, this budget could be a hammer blow to many families and individuals in Wales."
3 comments:
One presumes this "budget" was drawn up long before the Bank of Iceland fiasco which wil have an affect on Local Authority finances.
£20 million loss for Neath Port Talbot! Wow, can't see council tax bills going down this year for NPT council tax payers.
There are an estimated 57,600 houses in NPT county - not sure how many are paying council tax, lets say it's around 45,000
I estimate council tax bills will have to go up by around £45 to cover this loss, in addition to any further "inflationary" council tax rises, and covering shortfalls due to inadequate funding by WAG
...an additional thought, South Wales Police have lost £7 million in the Icelandic Bank fiasco, this means that Council Tax payers (who part finance the Police Authorities) across the South Wales Police region will have to finance this shortfall.
Although there were informed leaks last month, I believe that the budget was not formally presented to the Senedd until last week. Hopefully, someone with more knowledge will state the exact position.
An emergency motion, calling for WAG to provide transitional relief was passed at Conference today.
Frank Little
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