Cabinet to discuss final budget proposals for 2025-26

• Extra funding to help schools meet additional pressures.
• Greater investment into services for vulnerable adults and children.
• No cuts to funding for the Bridgend Music Service.
• Extra money for road maintenance and pothole repairs.
• New funding for Welsh-medium and English-medium primary schools.
• More money for disabled facility grants to support people at home.
• At 4.5 per cent, one of the lowest council tax increases in Wales (equivalent to an extra £1.59 a week on a Band D property).

The Cabinet of Bridgend County Borough Council will meet on Tuesday 18 February to discuss the final budget proposals planned for 2025-26.

Cabinet members will hear how the proposals within the Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) have been finalised following careful analysis of feedback from public consultation and completion of the scrutiny process.

After taking into account budget pressures of £23.9m and necessary reductions totalling just over £8.3m, the proposed net revenue budget for providing local communities with more than 800 services during 2025-26 will be £383.3m.

If approved, this will mean initial funding of £31.6m for Central Education services; £123.2m for Schools; £115.9m for Social Services and Wellbeing; £33.7m for Communities; £24.8m for services within the Chief Executive’s directorate (which range from Legal and Human Resources to Finance and Community Safety); and £53.9m for council-wide budgets covering functions such as the council tax reduction scheme, insurance budgets, discretionary rate relief and more.

A council tax increase of 4.5 per cent has also been proposed – the equivalent of an extra £1.59 a week on a Band D property. If endorsed by Cabinet, the budget proposals will go before all members at a meeting of full Council on Wednesday 26 February for final discussion and a vote.

As a direct result of feedback from public consultation, the final proposals feature a number of changes.

The council is no longer seeking to make reductions in the Bridgend Music Service, and has proposed withdrawing the cut in favour of allowing more time over the coming year to identify alternative ways of making the required saving.

While schools will still need to identify ways of making a 1 per cent overall reduction, the proposed budget also includes additional resources to help them meet pay and price pressures. As a result, funding for schools will increase by £7.9m in 2025-26.

Extra funding has also been allocated within the 2025-26 budget to support vulnerable adults and children, again in line with the results of public consultation.

Capital spending for the year ahead could include £3m for replacing ageing waste and recycling collection vehicles, an annual allocation of £2.4m for disabled facilities grants, £2m for continuing to transform and improve children’s play areas, £590,000 for highways structural and carriageway capital works, £400,000 to replace street lighting columns, £100,000 to help bring empty properties back into use, and £50,000 to support projects within local communities.

The budget includes plans for investing almost £14m towards the cost of establishing new English and Welsh medium primary schools in the west part of Bridgend County Borough.

To help cut down on emissions and support the council’s environmental commitments, Welsh Government funding of more than £453,700 has also been received to create infrastructure improvements to support the installation of up to 36 new charging facilities at council premises for electric vehicles.

Elsewhere, investment into housing and homelessness schemes will continue, as will efforts to provide vulnerable adults with a more reliable and integrated digital telecare service offering faster, improved levels of support.

The budget will be discussed by Cabinet on Tuesday 18 February before moving on to full Council on Wednesday 26 February. You can view the reports in full and the agendas for both meetings by visiting www.bridgend.gov.uk