Anglesey considers raising council tax by 9.5%
0Anglesey council’s executive on Monday proposed increasing council tax by 9.5%.
The executive also proposed raising the second home premium to 35% and the empty property council tax premium to 100%.
This is in addition to substantial cuts that the council had earlier identified, including a large reduction in the education budget.
The support grant which makes up three-quarters of the council’s income was cut by 0.3% in the Welsh local authority settlement.
Finance portfolio holder, Councillor Robin Williams, said: “Anglesey Council has been forced to slash its budget by more than £24m since 2013/14.
“This year alone, we have had to make cuts in services totalling around £2.5m.
“Like other Welsh councils, we have not seen an end to austerity and our residents and communities continue to suffer as a result.
“This year’s Welsh government settlement has reduced our funding, whilst costs continue to rise significantly.
“Increasing demand has led to over spending in some services, which in turn has eaten into our financial reserves, leaving us now unable to use them to balance this year’s budget.”
According to a report in NorthWalesLive, chief finance officer Marc Jones warned councillors that cash reserves were already low and if they reduced cash reserves further to allow a lower increase in council tax, then the risk facing the authority would rise even further.
Jones went on to say that if it continued to overspend it could find itself technically insolvent, like Northamptonshire last year.
The 2019/20 budget will be voted on at a council meeting on 27 February.
