BLAENAU GWENT faces the largest cuts ever seen in the county borough’s history despite receiving a 6.5 per cent funding increase from the Welsh Government.

On Wednesday, December 14, the Welsh Government announced its provisional local government settlement.

For the second year running the Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council languishes at the bottom of the funding table, with neighbouring Monmouthshire County Council at the top of the 22 receiving a 9.3 per cent increase.

This equates to an increase of £8.54 million and will see the county borough funding rise from £131.57 million this year to £139.597 million for next year.

Blaenau Gwent council leader, Cllr Steve Thomas said: “Although better than we originally planned for, it still leaves us with a massive funding gap due to rising inflation, pay awards and soaring energy and fuel costs.

“It is disappointing that Blaenau Gwent’s settlement of 6.5 per cent is significantly below the Welsh average of 7.9 per cent.

“This means that we will have very tough decisions to set a balanced budget for 2023/24.

“These decisions mean that there will be changes to the services valued by our residents, with some services needing to be reduced or stopped altogether.

“Before the draft settlement, based on our calculations we anticipated a £16 million shortfall.

“We will now revise those calculations in light of today’s announcement.

“However, despite the improved settlement, we still face the largest cut in funding ever seen in Blaenau Gwent.

“Whilst welcome, the 6.5 per cent has barely scratched the surface.”

He added that Blaenau Gwent has faced similar challenges in the past due to the austerity and had to make £45 million of cuts and savings during the decade from 2010 to 2020.

Cllr Thomas said: “At the height of austerity, we had to make £10 million in savings in one year, and in this coming financial year, the challenge is even greater.”

“We know that many decisions we have to make about services will be unpopular with our communities.

“With that in mind, we will be looking to engage with residents to communicate early in the new year the scale of the challenge we face, including any proposals or cuts together with any increase to Council Tax, so that they can hopefully understand if not always approve of the decisions we have to make.”

Cllr Thomas added that “everything possible” will be done to protect critical services.”

The Welsh Government started a seven-week consultation on the provisional settlement, which will end on February 2, 2023.

It is expected that Powys will set its budget including the level of Council Tax which is added to the government funding, in late February or early March.