Have your say
Early Budget Consultation for 2025-26
Updated October 2024:
This consultation has now closed.
About the consultation
The purpose of this early consultation is to gauge public opinion on the unprecedented financial pressures Pembrokeshire County Council is facing over the next four years and how this should be managed.
A more detailed budget consultation will be undertaken at the end of the calendar year and there will be a series of Facebook Live sessions to allow public discussion on the budget between September 2024 and March 2025.
Your views
Considering your views is an essential part of our review process. The consultation seeks your views on:
-
How would you generate the money needed (estimated £30m) for 2025-26 in order to balance the budget?
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How much would you increase Council Tax by in order to ensure a balanced budget?
-
How much would you reduce service budgets by in order to ensure a balanced budget?
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Any other suggestions for budget savings or for balancing the budget?
The responses to this consultation will assist in informing the development of the Council’s budget for 2025-26.
The closing date for completed responses is Sunday, 29th September 2024.
Please view the information below for details on context, balancing the budget and the Council’s primary sources of funding to support you with completing the response form.
You can give your views by completing our online response form.
You can also give your views using a paper copy of the response form. If you would like a paper copy please call our Customer Contact Centre on 01437 764551, so we can make arrangements to send this to you.
Context
Pembrokeshire is one of the most rural counties in the country meaning it costs more to provide many of its services.
The Council faces a projected funding shortfall of £84.6m over the next four years with £30m of that relating to 2025-26.
The Council’s primary source of funding is from Welsh Government (Aggregate External Funding (AEF)) but it is anticipated that there will be no increase in this funding for 2025-26.
Pembrokeshire continues to have one of the lowest Council Tax rates in Wales, meaning it has less funding to spend on its vital services to all elements of the community.
During 2023-24, due to an unprecedented increase in demand for its services, and increased cost and complexity of care, the Council had to spend an additional £13.9m in its Education (Additional Learning Needs), Adults and Children’s Social Care and Housing (Homelessness) budgets. £17m of additional budget has been added for 2024-25 but this is unlikely to be enough to fund these pressures.
To put this in context, each 1% increase in Council Tax generates £0.8m, therefore it would have taken a Council Tax increase of 21% for 2024-25 to cover these additional demand costs alone. The approved Council Tax increase was 12.5%.
Balancing the Budget
In order to balance its budget for 2025-26 the Council will need to increase its Council Tax significantly or reduce its service budgets and service provision.
If services are to remain at current levels, Council Tax will have to increase significantly. If Council Tax is not increased significantly, services budgets and service provision will have to be reduced.
As in previous years, the likelihood is that a combination of both a Council Tax increase and reductions in service budgets and service provision will be needed to balance the budget, we are therefore seeking your views on which of these options, or a combination of both, are most acceptable to you?
The Council’s primary sources of funding are:
Where our money comes from |
(£m) |
|
Council Tax |
84.6 |
|
Council Tax Premiums |
10.8 |
|
Government (Aggregate External Funding (AEF)) |
218.9 |
|
Reserve Funding |
1.6 |
The primary sources of funding are also shown in a pie chart:
What does the Council spend on providing services to the residents of Pembrokeshire:
Where our money goes |
(£m) |
|
Education |
119.2 |
|
Children’s Social Care |
31.8 |
|
Adult Social Care |
80 |
|
Infrastructure and Environment |
28.7 |
|
Housing |
5.8 |
|
Leisure and Culture |
5.5 |
|
Capital Financing Costs |
13.1 |
|
Other Services |
10 |
|
Other Corporate Costs |
21.7 |
What the Council spends on providing services to the residents of Pembrokeshire is also shown in a pie chart:
Changes to the Council’s budget over the past 10 years:
The chart includes the proportion of the budget for Education and Social Care (the two largest budgets) and the overall total budget from 2014-15 to 24-25. Social Care includes Adult and Children’s Social Care.
The chart shows that in 2014-15 the net expenditure on Education and Social Care was £145m (69.8% of the £207m total budget), but that this has gradually increased year on year, and for the current financial year (2024/25) the net expenditure on Education and Social Care was £231m (76% of the £303m total budget).