Cyflwynwyd gan: Cyng. / Cllr Ioan Thomas
Additional documents:
Decision:
It
was agreed to recommend the following to the Full Council on 4 March:
1. Establish a budget of £271,751,360
for 2021/22 to be funded through a
Government Grant of £194,793,140 and £76,958,220 of Council Tax income with
an increase of 3.7%.
2. Establish a capital programme of
£47,085,960 in 2021/22, to be funded from the sources noted in Appendix 4 of
the report.
It
was noted that the figures in recommendation 1 above would change in line with
the figures in Appendix 5 of the report should the Full Council increase the
Council Tax Premium from 50% to 100%.
Minutes:
The report was
submitted by Cllr Ioan Thomas
DECISION
It was agreed to recommend the
following to the Full Council on 4 March:
1.
Establish
a budget of £271,751,360 for 2021/22 to be funded through a
Government Grant of £194,793,140 and £76,958,220 of Council Tax income with
an increase of 3.7%.
2.
Establish
a capital programme of £47,085,960 in 2021/22, to be funded from the sources
noted in Appendix 4 of the report.
It was noted that the figures in
recommendation 1 above would change in line with the figures in Appendix 6 of
the report should the Full Council increase the Council Tax Premium from 50% to
100%.
DISCUSSION
The report was
submitted noting that the Council this year had received a grant increase,
which met inflation and was a fairer settlement than those in the years before
2020/21. Nevertheless, as unavoidable increases in the cost of some core
services needed to be funded, it was noted that the Tax would have to be
increased by 3.7%. It was emphasised that increasing the tax was necessary in
order to protect essential services for the people of Gwynedd, as it would be
impractical to implement additional savings schemes this year.
Attention was drawn
to the fact that most Council members had attended a series of consultation
workshops, and a positive discussion had been held at the Audit and Governance
Committee. By 2021/22, it was noted that expenditure would need to increase by
£10.6m in order to stand still, including £3.6m to meet pressures on the
services’ budgets. In order to address the financial gap, it was explained that
£725k could be harvested in 2021/22 from the savings schemes already planned,
but Council Tax would have to be increased by 3.7%.
It was added that
the Welsh Government’s official figures showed that the Council would receive a
grant increase of £6.4m by next year, which was an increase of 3.4%. It was
explained that Welsh Government would announce the final grant settlement on 2
March, along with the Welsh Government's final budget. The Cabinet was guided
through the revenue expenditure highlighting that the estimated salary
inflation was £3.5m. Despite the UK Government Chancellor’s desire for a pay
freeze, it was noted that there would be a pay increase of £250 pro rata to
staff on salaries of £24,000 or less, together with prudent provision for all
Council staff. It was also highlighted that there would be a 3.1% salary
increase for Gwynedd’s school teachers for the period April – August 2021.
It was noted that other inflation was £2.6m, which included provision for the effect of the ‘living wage’, along with an increase in inflation on fuel and energy budgets and an increase in re-tendering prices. It was emphasised that there were pressures on services and it was recommended to approve applications worth £3.59m that had been submitted by the departments for additional permanent resources. It was noted that total Government support in light of the Covid-19 crisis was expected to ... view the full minutes text for item 11
Awdur: Dafydd Edwards