South Wales Fire Service is considering an inflation busting 12.7% increase in its funding from council tax payers in the area. The current rate of inflation is 10.5%. Under proposals to be considered by the South Wales Fire Authority on Monday, February 13, next year’s budget (2023/2024) would be £89.37m, a £10.07m rise from this year.
The service covers 10 areas including Blaenau Gwent, Bridgend, Caerphilly, Cardiff, Merthyr Tydfil, Monmouthshire, Newport, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Torfaen and Vale of Glamorgan. The fire authority approved a draft budget for 2023/2024 for consultation in December. Also in December, a draft Welsh Government budget announced that local government funding for next financial year will increase by an average of 7.9%. The report said this is subject to change particularly around the transfer of specific grants previously paid to the fire authority.
For the current financial year (2022/2023), the fire authority set a budget of £79.3m in year when councils received an increase in their funding from Welsh Government of around 10% while the fire authority requested an additional 2.29% in resources. The increase proposed for next year assumes that the Welsh Government’s Scape grant (which helps with the increased costs of employer’s fire service pension contributions) previously paid to the fire authority, will be transferred to constituent councils in the final local government settlement, the fire authority report said.
