LABOUR’S LACK OF FUNDING AND N.I. HIKE FORCES 9.75% COUNCIL TAX RISE

Plaid Cymru on Carmarthenshire County Council has blamed inadequate Welsh Government funding and the Labour Chancellor’s devastating employers National Insurance hike for blowing a multi-million pound hole in the council’s budget for 2025/26 – forcing the authority to propose a Council Tax rise of 9.75%.

“In my experience this year is even worse than all those years of Tory austerity,” said Cllr Alun Lenny, Cabinet Member forResources. “Due to inflation, pay settlements and growing demand, we needed an extra £55m to fund essential services like Social Care and Education, but received a total of just £25m in annual grants from the Labour Welsh Government. We’ve had to fill the gap with efficiencies and a far higher Council Tax rise than any of us would like.

“Residents might be surprised to learn that only 16% of our income comes from the Council Tax, with every 1% equating to £1m. We originally anticipated raising it by 4-5%, but Rachel Reeves’ National Insurance changes alone will leave us about £4m out of pocket. The Labour Chancellor’s action has also hit local businesses hard right across our county, with lower paid workers in retail and hospitality in particular worried about their jobs.

“I’m sure that motorists concerned about potholes will be outraged to learn that councils in England are getting massiveextra funding from the £4.7billion Local Transport Fund. Just over the border, Herefordshire – a county with almost exactly the same size population and highways network as Carmarthenshire– is getting an extra £102m over the next seven years. That scale of spending on roads is something we can only dream about, and shows that we in Wales are the poor relatives when it comes to UK Government funding.

“It’s scandalous that the Labour Government in Westminster is following the Tory party line by refusing to give Wales the billions of pounds Plaid insists we’re owed as consequential funding from the HS2 railway development in England. We estimate that our share in Carmarthenshire should be c£250m. That would solve our budget problems overnight.

“Despite the grossly inadequate funding and the huge financial pressures, we’re still investing millions of pounds more in education, in housing, and in adult and childrens’ services. We’ve also responded to the public consultation by scrapping the proposal to close public toilets unless they were asset transferred. Car parking charges will only be raised in line with inflation, and we’ll be investing more in highways, gully cleaning and flood prevention.”

As the Welsh Government puts the final touches to its annual budget, Plaid Cymru will be lobbying hard for fairer funding right up until the last minute.