Council tax is likely to go up by 6.8% in Carmarthenshire after cabinet approved a revised budget and dropped a number of savings proposals. A 7% council tax increase had originally been expected from April but leaders crunched the numbers again and considered more than 2,100 responses to a budget consultation.
A report before cabinet said the council's energy bill for 2023-24 was now expected to be £8.4 million higher than this year, not £9.5 million, and that this combined with other adjustments gave the council an extra £1.79 million to use. You can get more Carmarthenshire news and other story updates by subscribing to our newsletters here.
Full council will set the budget at a meeting on March 1 - the same day the Welsh Government is due to publish its final budget settlement. The authority is in line to receive £15.5 million more from Cardiff Bay than originally anticipated - 8.5% more than the current year - but, like all councils and society as a whole, faces severe inflationary pressures.
