The Leaders of the four opposition groups on Powys County Council have welcomed the above-average provisional Rate Support Grant (RSG) settlement from the Welsh Government for 2021/22, which will represent a 4% increase on the grant received by the County Council in 2020/21, well above the increase proposed for most Welsh local authorities.

 

The 4 group Leaders, Cllrs James Gibson-Watt (Welsh Lib Dem) , Matthew Dorrance (Welsh Lab), Jeremy Pugh (Action for Powys) and Elwyn Vaughan (Plaid Cymru) issued the following joint statement:-

 

“We welcome this settlement as being fair and proportionate. It reflects the challenges that Powys County Council will face in 2021/22, with the continuing challenge of the Covid-19 pandemic likely to remain severe throughout the rest of this winter; and the need to sustain the recent improvements in the Council’s social care services and urgently proceed with the transformation of the education and training systems in the county. This settlement should enable those challenges to be addressed without the need for the sort of punitive, above-inflation Council Tax rises that the current Independent/Tory coalition has imposed on Powys’s long-suffering residents over the past few years.”

 

“We look forward to the Council’s ruling coalition bringing forward a draft 2021/22 budget that reflects this significant boost to the Council’s funding.”