Have your say on budget proposals
Posted on Friday 20th December 2019
Newport City Council’s cabinet has considered the budget for 2020-21 and how services could be delivered within the limited resources available.
The council provides more than 800 services for more than 151,000 people living in more than 65,000 households.
A public consultation on a series of proposals for changes to services and support provided by Newport City Council will now run until 31 January 2020.
Councillor Jane Mudd, Leader of the council, said: “We have already made significant savings and efficiencies – £41 million over the last five years and have reduced the size of our workforce by almost a quarter.
“However, the demands on services, particularly in social care and education, show absolutely no sign of reducing. As a result, we must find even more ‘new’ savings.
“We are trying very hard to plan for a sustainable future, but with less money, fewer staff and stretched services, it is incredibly difficult.
“We were very pleased to receive a positive draft settlement from Welsh Government earlier this week, which puts us in a slightly better position than when our service areas put forward their savings proposals. We have decided to consult on the original proposals, giving us more opportunity to consider the responses from the public consultation and make changes in line with the areas our residents feel most strongly about.
“However, because of over a decade of reducing budgets, many services are stretched almost to breaking point. This positive settlement will not fix all our issues or indeed change the fact that the needs of our residents show absolutely no sign of diminishing in the future.
“We have an aging population and more and more people will need care either in their own homes or in residential/nursing homes.
“We are a growing city which is vital for creating jobs and the local economy but it means more children and more school places.
“We have more and more children with complex needs transitioning into adulthood and need continuing support and care, probably for the rest of their lives.
“The real challenge however is that we want to do more than just provide the basic services that we have to provide by law – we want to ensure Newport is an attractive place to live, thereby attracting employers and creating jobs. That is why we must also make sure we invest in a strategic way.
“One area of the budget where it is always hard to strike the balance is council tax. Although it contributes less than a quarter towards the total budget, we understand that it is a considerable outgoing for our residents.
“Newport has consistently had one of the lowest council tax rates in Wales – however much we might not want to do it, we have to consider raising it, but even then we would expect to still be very low in comparison to other authorities. At this stage, we are considering a rise of 7.95 percent – the majority of our households are in bands A to C, which would mean a rise of between £1.14 and £1.52 a week.”
Proposals for 2020-21 are available to view at www.newport.gov.uk/budget where you can also find out more about where the council’s funding comes from and the general budget challenge.
The public consultation will run until 31 January 2020 and all responses will then be considered by cabinet at their February meeting.
As the council is committed to being open and transparent, all cabinet member and head of service decisions are available to view, although are not subject to the full consultation.