Key Achievements During This Programme for Administration

A selection of the achievements that our Administration has delivered since 2022 are listed below. These build upon the work of the previous administration. These would not have been possible without the hard work of those who work for the Council and other organisations.

Place, the Region, Climate Change and Rural Affairs

We said we would establish a Freeport

Celtic Freeport has been established following our work with government at all levels and the private sector. A management team is in place, and we have committed funding to the end of this Administration to enable the Freeport to create more than 11,000 new jobs and add over £8 billion in economic value to the region.

We said we would regenerate town centres

We have brought new life back into the riverside area of Haverfordwest; Waldo’s bar part of the Western Quayside opened in November 2024, planning permission being considered for food ‘pop-ups’ and the sensitively refurbished Foundry building will open as a new bar shortly. The new footbridge is in position, an inspiring physical link between the Heart of Pembrokeshire project, focused on the Castle and the Transport interchange below.

We said we would improve transport infrastructure

Haverfordwest Transport Interchange is well-underway, and the new building will be complete around spring 2027. The contract for Milford Haven Public Transport Interchange, a new bus interchange, taxi rank, formalised car park, public realm spaces and improved Active Travel links is being tendered, and the project will be complete by March 2027.

We said we would improve broadband

We have worked with communities and providers and in September 2025, 95% of Pembrokeshire premises had access to Superfast broadband (over 30 mb per second) and over 57% of the county had access to gigabit capable speeds. Only 1% of Pembrokeshire is restricted to speeds below 2Mbps.

We said we would support Pembrokeshire's toruism industry

We have re-established Visit Pembrokeshire as a true partnership with the tourism industry. The new partnership has levered in funding from the sector to build a dynamic and creative organisation that is delivering on a shared vision for this key industry. In recognition of the pressures the industry faces, we have ruled out a discretionary visitor levy during this administration.

We said we would expand renewable energy and work towards the Council being net zero by 2030

We worked with Egni Co-op to install rooftop solar photovoltaic generation, as well as the successful rollout of Energy Sparks in 35 schools to cut bills. Almost all our streetlights are now low energy LED which has reduced power consumption, saving £270,000 per year. The newly built Ysgol Bro Penfro is net zero; heated by air source heat pumps, its solar panels generate as much electricity as it uses.

We said we would respond to climate change

We worked with partners through the Public Services Board to produce a Climate Adaptation Strategy for Pembrokeshire, and a Climate Adaptation Toolkit to help communities prepare for climate change. We also produced a Local Area Energy Plan to guide energy development in the County up to 2050.

Housing

We said we would build new council housing, older people’s sheltered housing and supported living accommodation.

We have brought forward 73 new council houses in the past two years through our housing development programme and package deals in Johnston, Tiers Cross, Broad Haven, Hook and St Davids, the first new council housing in a generation. We have worked with housing associations to develop new homes available to those on the waiting list; 152 were delivered in 2024-25. We have also acquired 182 homes over the past four years (often homes that we originally sold off under the right to buy scheme). Our total housing stock is now 5,863 increasing our capacity to respond to homelessness as well as helping people remain within their communities.

We said we would work to ensure homelessness is prevented, brief, rare and unrepeated

In common with other counties, homelessness was increasing in 2022 as: private landlords left the market; second homes and holiday let use of homes expanded; and family breakdown increased. The number of homeless people we worked with peaked in July 2023 at 682 and, since then, homelessness has decreased by half using this measure. We continue to rely heavily on homeless temporary accommodation despite our drop in numbers, and it is acknowledged that more needs to be done to prevent homelessness and support our complex cases.
We have leased 26 properties from Pembrokeshire landlords to use as rental properties for our homeless, and we continue to encourage more properties to be part of this Leasing Scheme Wales programme.

We said we would respond to changes in housing availability resulting from increases second homes and holiday lets

In April 2025, we used funding raised from the second homes council tax premium to launch the Homebuy Pembrokeshire scheme, helping first-time buyers to purchase a home in Pembrokeshire. In six months, we have received 106 enquiries and approved eight applications with a further five applications in the pipeline.

We said we would regenerate housing estates and repair and decarbonise our own housing stock

In 2024-2025, we delivered a capital and repair programme of £29.5 million on maintaining and improving our council housing stock and estates. We continue to proceed with a programme of decarbonisation works on our properties which include installations such as air source heat pumps, wall insultation, efficient heating systems and Photo Voltaic panels.

Corporate Finance Efficiencies

We said we would balance the Council’s budget

The three successive budgets since May 2022’s elections have addressed funding gaps of £18.6m, £31.9m and £26.9m whilst maintaining the vast majority of council services, requiring key statutory services such as Education and Social Care to make proportionately small cuts. We have retained a prudent level of reserves and ensured our borrowing costs for capital projects are affordable for future generations.

We said we would make the council more efficient and reduce bureaucracy and widen customer choice

We have simplified processes across the Council using a consistent methodology called Vanguard with the early results in Social Care being very promising. We have continued to introduce digital improvements so customers can access services at times that are convenient to them, and the number of My Account users has increased by over 40% since 2022, now with numbers over 100,000.

We said we would pursue Invest to Save projects in order to deliver future savings and efficiencies

By managing reserves, we have created a pot of money which our Invest to Save Accelerated Change Programme (Invest to Save) has used to fund £4.6m of projects during 2024-25 and 2025-26 to date, primarily to deliver the prevention agenda focusing on young people aged 0 – 25 years.

We said we would identify alternative income streams to help close funding gaps

When we work jointly with other organisations (e.g. the Health Board, other councils and utilities), we have increased our fees and charges to reflect the work we do (full cost recovery) or a fair contribution from these organisations to the cost of joint services. We have also maximised government grants for services as well as capital projects.

We said we would obtain views of as many residents as possible through the annual budget stakeholder consultation

We have tried to make it as easy as possible for people to give their views on the Council’s budget. Over 1,000 people contributed to our main 2025-26 budget consultation exercise with over 250 contributing to the initial 2025-26 consultation. Respondents were able to see the impact of budget choices through an interactive budget modeller. In addition, nearly 3,000 responded to the consultation on second homes council tax premiums for 2025-26.

Adult Social Care

We said we would support people with appropriate care and support to live in their own homes and communities

We have managed the substantial increase in demand for social care and have now reduced the number of people waiting for assessments by half, with the largest reduction being made for those waiting more than 91 days.
We changed how people access adult social care services, involving our partners in the third sector at an early stage so that more people meet their needs through community services rather than statutory services.

We said we would introduce a minimum rate of pay for domiciliary care workers of £11.50 per hour and expand in-house domiciliary care

We met this commitment and pay the real living wage to care workers who work for companies we commission. In-house domiciliary care workers are now paid £13.45 per hour reflecting the skilled and demanding work they do. We have also expanded our in-house domiciliary care service, reducing our reliance on external providers.

We said we would continue to develop social worker traineeships to meet demand

We currently have 16 more PCC funded students working towards social work qualifying training, with five due to qualify this year.

We said we would encourage micro and social enterprise development to build a diverse and vibrant care market

We are making good progress and there are now 105 active micro-enterprises (as of September 2025) an increase from 30 in April 2022. This increase has been delivered by utilising the Regional Integrated Fund and is a good example of how we have used grant funding to support improvement in Pembrokeshire.

We said we would increase the uptake of direct payments (an alternative to domiciliary care)

For much of this Administration, and as a result of our brokerage service, a greater number of care hours has been provided through direct payments than domiciliary care. This gives the people we help support greater voice and control over their lives and there are now 484 people with an active direct payment an increase from the same time last year.

We said we would develop a range of meaningful day opportunities and respite services for individual families and carers.

We reconfigured day opportunities and supported the development of a new day opportunities social enterprise to replace previous provision, alongside promoting more community-based opportunities. We have maintained or commitment to supported employment opportunities.

We said we would work with partners to ensure successful resettlement of people from Ukraine to Pembrokeshire.

We are proud to have played our part in assisting people who have had to leave Ukraine as a result of Russia’s illegal invasion of their country in February 2022. A dedicated and multi-disciplinary migration partnership was created that supports, in partnership with other partner agencies, the resettlement of people from Ukraine into Pembrokeshire.

Young People, Community, Well-being and Future Generations

We said we would reduce the numbers of children in care by preventing children coming into care and supporting children to leave care safely

Since 2022, there has been an unprecedented increase in demand for children’s social care. In response, in 2024 we increased capacity in our Child Care Assessment Team and in spring 2025 put in place a comprehensive package of preventative measures funded through our invest to save programme. This is complemented by capital funding proposals in our Commission plan.

We said we would aim to have a minimum of 6 spaces for children in council-run homes within the period of this administration

We opened West Lodge residential care home in 2024 which has a maximum capacity of four young people. Plans to further expand residential care are included in our Social Services Strategic Commissioning Plan 2025-35 (opens in a new tab) with two projects being actively pursued that have the potential to greatly exceed our 2022 target by 2027.

We said we would expand in-house Foster Care

We increased the amount of in-house foster carer places registered from 105 in 2013 to 128 in 2024 but, due to unprecedented increases in demand, we need to expand numbers further. We have recently agreed a range of new incentives for people to become foster carers including an eye-catching incentive of exempting Pembrokeshire County Council foster carers from council tax.

We said we would promote a volunteering culture within PCC so that we lead by example

We worked with Pembrokeshire Association of Voluntary Services to develop a volunteering strategy for Pembrokeshire. We have re-energised our existing employee volunteering policy and have seen an increase in take-up, realising benefits for the community as well as providing excellent team building exercises.

We said we would develop services that help prevent people’s needs escalating

We introduced a free carer pass at Scolton Manor and free or discounted leisure membership in recognition of the huge amount of work carers do and to reduce the risk of social isolation
We have invested in and expanded the Child Care Assessment Team so we can respond promptly to reports about the welfare of children and ensure they are kept safe.

We said we would develop and implement a strategy to reduce poverty and enhance prosperity

We have agreed an anti-poverty strategy which is being progressed by the multi-agency Public Services Board (PSB). The PSB has brought organisations tackling poverty together in annual poverty summits and has just run the first in a series of individual-targeted benefit take up campaigns.

Residents' Services and Leisure

We said we would enhance potential of our assets for community well-being through community asset transfers

We have simplified the process for community asset transfers and there are active negotiations to transfer a number of public toilets to the community. We have transferred the running of Haverfordwest Airport to a local aviation company securing the future of this important facility at no cost to the local taxpayer.

We said we would maintain high recycling rates

We built the first phase of the new Eco-Park in Waterston, essential infrastructure to ensure Pembrokeshire remains one of the best performing councils in Wales. 2023-24’s figure was 72% (second highest in Wales) and 2024-25’s figure is expected to be even higher. We have also expanded the range of items collected from the kerbside for recycling to include small electrical items.

We said we would maintain and improve local environmental quality

Compared with other authorities, our streets continue to be cleaner than the Welsh average. We have put a contract in place to enforce littering fines as well as to advise visitors on restrictions for dogs on beaches.

We said we would maintain our highways in a good condition, improve road safety

We have implemented speed limit reductions throughout the County, including the Welsh Government’s 20mph default limit, alongside ongoing reviews and enhancements. We have continued to implement road safety measures in localities often in conjunction with investing in active travel measures and shared user paths. Saundersfoot has seen the opening of a link between Saundersfoot Station and the village along Fan Road. Upgrades to the existing network, such as the Brunel Trail along with the removal of barriers also promote accessible leisure cycling for all ages.

We said we would continue to provide a comprehensive range of good quality leisure, library and cultural facilities

We have created new partnerships to deliver library services in Neyland (hosted in Neyland Community Hub) and opened a new community library Narberth, both of which offer an open access scheme enabling library visits anytime between 6am – 10pm, Monday – Sunday.
Good progress is being made in creating new cultural facilities at Haverfordwest Castle and South Quay, Pembroke. In Pembroke, the new community facility will support the delivery of our social care objectives.

Planning and Regulatory Services

We said we would develop a new Local Development Plan

We continued to work on a new Local Development Plan for Pembrokeshire’s communities that are outside the National Park, which will guide future development. The final main step, Examination in Public, will start in October 2025 with adoption of the new plan anticipated by November 2026. LDP 2 will seek to deliver the following level of growth over the Plan period from 2017- 2033: 5,840 new homes and 1,970 new jobs, but with the potential for a further 1,000 plus jobs arising in the initial phases of the Celtic Freeport proposals.

We said we would improve the speed with which planning decisions are made

Since December 2022, the percentage of planning applications made within timescales has been in excess of 90% and since April 2024, the percentage has usually been in excess of 98%. This has been achieved by building the planning team through recruiting planning trainees and has been in the context of increased complexity in the factors which planners need to consider when making decisions.

We said we would improve planning enforcement, ensuring the planning system remains fair for all

We recruited an Enforcement Team, and the number of outstanding enforcement cases has reduced by over two-thirds since April 2023. A Planning Enforcement Protocol has been adopted to communicate expectations and to help resolve issues at an early stage.

We said we would provide a high-quality Building Control service

Our building control team has met all the new registration requirements and demonstrated that team members have the appropriate competency levels. Industry confidence in the team is demonstrated by our Building Control service holding 91% of market share of compared with the national average of approximately 60%.

We said we would strengthen our contribution to the nature recovery agenda

We have continued to deliver projects centred around the protection and enhancement of biodiversity, and Revenue and capital grants to a value of £2.7 million were drawn into the County for the financial years 2023-2025. Examples include nature-friendly enhancements at Fortune’s Frolic in Haverfordwest and at Narberth crematorium gardens.

We said we would support a safe living and working environment through the efficient and effective delivery of public protection services

We have dealt with over 5,500 service requests for licencing and public health services, and taken a number of court cases across trading standards, public health and animal health.
To address ongoing recruitment challenges we have introduced a gateway and 'golden hello' payments which have successfully led to new recruitments into the service.

Education and Welsh Language

We said that we would enable every learner, regardless of their background, to become the best they can be

We have worked with colleagues across the regions, schools and their governing bodies to improve teaching and educational outcomes. None of our schools are now in an Estyn intervention category. The steps we have taken to achieve this include rolling out the School Improvement Partnership Programme and encouraging schools to work in clusters with good quality plans. Our school leadership development programme, Pembs 50, is having an excellent impact on delivering the senior school staff and Heads we need for the future.

We said that we would deliver universal free school meals to all primary learners by September 2023

We completed the roll out of free school meals to all primary school pupils. We continue to promote take up of meals, particularly by children from low-income families.

We said that we would create a nurturing environment and inspire every learner

We completed full roll out of trauma informed practice across all our schools, and this is having a significant positive impact on school exclusions which are the lowest in Wales.
We expanded Flying Start early years development programme to Fishguard and Goodwick and delivered Springboard plus family learning provision at eleven primary schools.

We said that we would modernise schools making them fit places for young people to learn (our Sustainable Communities for Learning programme)

The new Haverfordwest High school was completed in August 2022 alongside excellent new sports facilities that the community can use outside of school hours. The Welsh medium language (and net zero) Bro Penfro was completed in September 2024. Portfield School Phase one is due to be completed on time and on budget by Jan 2026. These new schools are fit-for-purpose learning environments, and we are making good progress on proposals for both English and Welsh primary and secondary education in Milford Haven.

We said that we would deliver our Welsh in Education Strategic Plan

We have made progress against this plan with annual reports being considered by Cabinet. The Welsh in Education Strategic Plan is one of the ways in which we are playing our part to meet the goal of there being 1 million Welsh speakers by 2050.

We said that we would promote and support Welsh language and culture

We are honoured to have been chosen as the host authority for the 2026 National Eisteddfod and we are working with the community and neighbouring authorities to celebrate the Welsh language and culture at this prestigious event.

Cabinet programme for administration 2022 2027