Newport City Council will raise council tax by 8.5% from April as well as cutting some services and reducing bin collections. The council cabinet said on Wednesday that the hike was "unavoidable" in order to protect public services.
The council's cabinet on Wednesday February 15 agreed on its spending for its 2023/24 budget which will include a reduction in some services and moving bin collections to every three weeks. The proposals will now go before the full council on Tuesday February 28.
Local authorities in Wales warned in November they would be engulfed by a "financial firestorm" with services including schools, libraries, waste collection and care homes all facing huge cuts. Setting its draft budget for 2023/24 in December, Welsh Government warned Wales faced a "perfect storm of financial pressures" and that its budget would be the most difficult since devolution.
Read more: How much council tax is rising in every part of Wales
Newport City Council originally proposed a council tax increase of 9.5%, but this has now been revised down to 8.5% after a public consultation. Newport council tax is currently the third lowest in Wales. The cabinet said it "recognised that this is a considerable bill for Newport households but were pleased that responses to the consultation acknowledged the council’s position, that increases were unavoidable and that it can enable services to be protected."
The budget also includes the council moving to three-weekly bin collections and a £9m investment in schools, as well as maintaining provision at Oaklands respite and residential care home. The council budget originally included introducing car parking charges at parks like Glebelands, Christchurch and Morgan’s Pond and and charges for replacement residual waste bins, but these are no longer being considered.
There will also be a one-off investment in the city centre to ensure continued support for businesses and recovery following the pandemic. This will include business rate support for eligible city centre businesses in 2023/24. The council will also provide temporary support to mental health service provider Growing Space for the next two years.
Council leader Jane Mudd said: “We have promised to be a listening council and I was pleased with the level of response this year. It has been one of the most challenging budgets we’ve had to set in recent years, and it was vitally important that everyone had their opportunity to contribute. Every response was reviewed and considered before we made our final decisions.
“We are very pleased to be able to invest in some of the areas our residents felt were most important. The decisions made by Cabinet today will mean that key services can continue, some cuts will not have to be made and others will have additional time and opportunity to consider how we can change and deliver services more efficiently in the future.”
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