Cabinet to consider final budget proposals for 2024-25

The Cabinet of Bridgend County Borough Council will meet on Tuesday 20 February to discuss the final budget proposals planned for 2024-25.

Cabinet members will hear how the proposals within its Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) have been finalised following careful analysis of feedback from public consultation and completion of the scrutiny process.

After taking into account budget pressures of £30.4m and necessary reductions of just over £13m, the proposed budget for providing more than 800 separate services in 2024-25 stands at £359.7m.

If endorsed by Cabinet, the budget proposals will go before a meeting of full Council on 28 February for the final part of the budget-setting process.

Some significant changes have been made to the final budget proposals, including a reduction of 3 per cent instead of 5 per cent in proposed school funding for 2024-25 – one of the issues that people felt most strongly about in feedback from the public consultation.

As schools will also receive additional funding to help meet pay and price pressures, this will mean an overall cash increase for school budgets which, based on current estimates, could reach as high as £5m.

Proposals for closing Bridgend bus station have been removed from the MTFS, and planned cuts to funding for street cleaning, recycling centres, community centres, play areas, support for children with additional needs, and support to help the third sector deal with hospital discharges have all been avoided.

Proposed cuts to legal services will also be reduced from £335,000 to £154,000, and from £255,000 to £55,000 for climate emergency response measures.

The report also details how the council continues to face significant pressures in some service areas, particularly across social services where there is a projected overspend of £12.5m, and how in order to balance the budget and meet these ongoing pressures, a council tax increase of 9.5 per cent remains one of the budget proposals for 2024-25.

Cabinet will also be asked to agree to hold back just over £1m as a contingency fund in case any of its planned money-saving proposals are not realised in full, or additional pressures emerge during the year ahead.

The budget will be discussed by Cabinet on Tuesday 20 February before moving on to full Council on Wednesday 28 February, and you can view the agenda at www.bridgend.gov.uk