Taxpayers in Mid and West Wales will pay 13% more towards the region's fire service in 2023-24 compared to this year. The budget for Mid and West Fire and Rescue Service will be £63,257,200, more than £9 million more than currently.
Energy, fuel and wage inflation, and a desire among Mid and West Wales Fire Authority - the body which sets the budget and scrutinises the fire service - to address priority areas such as a decline in retained firefighters are behind the inflation-busting hike. You can get more Swansea news and other story updates by subscribing to our newsletters here.
Residents of Swansea, Carmarthenshire, Neath Port Talbot, Powys, Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire fund the fire service through council tax levy - and the increase could have been even higher for 2023-24 because the Welsh Government withdrew a grant for the fire service's radio system, called Firelink. But that grant, worth nearly £600,000, will now be funded from the fire service's reserves.
