Wrexham senior councillors back 4% council tax rise

SENIOR councillors in Wrexham have backed plans to increase council tax by  four per cent.

Members of Wrexham Council’s ruling independent/Conservative executive board met Tuesday, 8 February to discuss the local authority’s budget for the upcoming financial year.

It includes a hike on council tax bills for 2022/23, which amounts to almost £53 extra per year for residents living in an average band D property.

The move comes despite the council being handed a 9.4 per cent uplift in its provisional funding settlement from the Welsh Government, taking the total amount of money it receives to deliver key services up to £207m.

However, council leader Mark Pritchard recently said the announcement also imposed additional cost pressures, including a requirement to pay social care staff the “real living wage” of £9.90 an hour and a salary increase for teachers.

In addition, he said his administration wanted to put more money into children’s social care and members had done their best to keep council tax as low as possible.

Cllr Pritchard said:

“The 2022/23 settlement gives opportunities for recovery of ground rather than major additional investment, given the significant demands the council is currently facing and will face over the next few years.

“However, with a significant investment in social care next year, the budget proposals also provide some additional investments into the services which are our priorities.

“The proposals to the executive this morning include a four per cent increase in council tax.

“This is a lower council tax increase than last year and indeed is lower than the planned figure in the medium-term financial plan.

“With a proposed increase of four per cent, our current council tax level will remain one of the lowest in Wales.”

The budget proposals discussed at the meeting included an extra £30,000 for the Citizen’s Advice service to help residents struggling with their finances.

An additional £30,000 is also set to be invested into the school music service, while charges for blue badge parking permits in Wrexham will be scrapped.

Labour opposition leader Dana Davies said she had no objections to the proposed tax increase.

But she questioned whether setting it at a lower rate than the originally proposed figure of five per cent could lead to larger rises in later years.

She said:

“I’ve got no issues at all with four per cent council tax, given the settlement that we have.

“It’s a moral decision really that we support those residents that we know are going to be financially vulnerable and are going to find the next 12 months so difficult with the cost-of-living crisis.

“The issue I do have is it’s a bit like the Rishi Sunak school of finance, where there’s a reduction to council tax this year with one hand but then over the next two years, we’re clawing that back.”

Cllr Pritchard said he believed the council tax level outlined was sustainable and would put the authority “in a very good place” to deliver services.

Cllr Alun Jenkins, the only remaining Liberal Democrat on the council, questioned why the authority was spending approximately £6m less in key areas than the Welsh Government’s standard spending assessment (SSA).

The centrally determined figure sets out how much each authority needs to spend on revenue services, although does not represent an official target.

In response, the council leader said:

“The SSA has been with us for a very long time, and I can remember when you were lead member of finance and it was the same problem then as it is now.

“We’ve worked hard to address the SSA and we’ll continue to work hard.”

Executive board members unanimously backed the proposed budget and council tax levels at the end of the debate.