Ceredigion councillors extremely disappointed with the funding announcement.
Earlier this week, Ceredigion County Council was informed by the Welsh Labour Government what its financial settlement will be for the year 2024-25. The settlement announced is only 2.6% which is significantly lower than inflation, and which is much less than the figure of 3.1% announced by Rebecca Evans, Minister for Finance and Local Government as a minimum. Newport Council received 4.7% and Cardiff Council 4.1%.
The settlement is a concern to councillors and officers alike when they imagine the inevitable cuts due to the shortfall in the budgets if there is so little progress in the settlement. Once again, the challenges of living in rural areas are being ignored by the Cardiff Bay Labour Government and the residents of the southeast are being prioritised.
Another disappointment in the announcement of the settlement is the amount given to two of the County's main employers, both the National Library and the Book Council, losing 10% of their funding from the Government.
Business taxes will also have to be increased, which will have a heavy impact on Ceredigion businesses - especially touristic, seasonal ones. All of these have a heavy impact on our County even before the settlement being so low.
Gareth Davies, Cabinet Member for Finance and Procurement Services at Ceredigion County Council, said,
"I fear that there is a perfect storm on the way to Ceredigion and that cuts will have to be made across the services.
"We have seen so much narrowing of services throughout the last decade in order to have a budget that works for the County and now we will have to look at the very basic service in order to get the big savings that we have to make.
"Everyone understands that money is scarce in Cardiff Bay, and we anticipated that there would be cuts (in real terms) on the way, but what angers someone today - seeing the settlement - is that Ceredigion gets unfair treatment."
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