SWANSEA Council is set to invest tens of millions of pounds extra this year in vital services that touch the lives of city residents every day.
Extra funding of £35m will see record levels of spending on schools and social care, while community services like street cleaning and litter removal will get more support too.
Rob Stewart, Leader of the Council, said: “The budget will see the biggest-ever single round of investment in council services in Swansea. It will be a record-breaker by any measure.”
A report to Cabinet on February 17 reveals how the council has supported residents, businesses and communities through two years of the pandemic and is now planning for the future.
Cabinet will be asked to recommend to a meeting of full council next month a round of above-inflation investment in services across the council including:
- An extra £13.6m for education overall, meaning schools will have more than £179m to spend on educating our young people
- £16m more for social care, taking overall spending to £144.7m for child and family services and caring for the vulnerable and elderly
- More than £10m more for cultural and community services, including roads, littering, and recycling.
- Spending power of around £1.8m a day on the people of Swansea
Cllr Stewart said: “Two years ago few could have predicted the incredible upheaval of the pandemic. Throughout that time the council has been here for our residents, the vulnerable, businesses and our young people.
“Our investment next year in critical day-to-day services like roads, littering, street cleaning and recycling will continue to support them.”
Over the past year the council has supported businesses with £190m of grant funding channelled from the Welsh Government. It has also supported communities through the £20m Economic Regeneration Fund.
The fund has seen investment targeted to meet community needs. In the coming year planned spending on play area upgrades will double from £2.5m currently to £5m so every council-owned site can get a makeover.
Cllr Stewart added: “Despite the disruption of the pandemic the new arena for the city centre will open in March. It’s not just a landmark for the people of Swansea, it will generate millions for the city economy, creating and protecting jobs.”
He said: “In next year’s budget there will be room for more support for schools so that young people who have seen so much change and challenge over the last two years will continue to be supported effectively by the brilliant teachers to whom we owe much.
“Next year’s planned rise in social care funding will see investment rise to record levels, including a further £1.5m for child and family services. This is about making sure our priorities are where our communities want them to be – safeguarding young people and supporting vulnerable and older people.
“Social care services have been under sustained pressure for two years now and demand will continue to rise as the unpredictable challenges of the pandemic persists into 2022 and 2023.”
Cllr Stewart said that thanks to strong financial management and despite the pressures of Covid-19, rising inflation and rising demand for services, there would be no need for compulsory job losses this year.
The reports to Cabinet predict an overall increase in financial support from Welsh Government over the next four years of around £65m.
Schools will continue to take the lion’s share of the budget with its total budget reaching £202m when central education services are taken into account. Social services, including poverty and prevention, will see its share of the budget rise to £144.7m.
There will be an extra £10.3m allocated to services like waste and recycling, roads and transport, cultural services, libraries and parks, taking spending on these services up to £74.8m.
Cllr Stewart said it’s anticipated that the council tax rise next year will be less than average compared to other Welsh local authorities and he added: “The total amount raised by council tax is significantly less than we spend on Education and about the same as we spend on social services – caring for our vulnerable children and the elderly.
He said: “Every penny of the extra raised from the increase will go into education, social services and our communities.
He said: “Thanks to a very positive Budget settlement from the Welsh Government, we will have the opportunity to invest millions of pounds more on the priorities of the people of Swansea next year.
“We are already doing more with less because the council has become smarter, leaner and more efficient. We have reduced back-office spending, automated services and cut red tape and that has helped slash the cost of what we do by millions of pounds.
By radically changing the way we work we have achieved savings of more than £70m in the last five years and there will be an additional £4.8m of savings this year too.”
If the report to Cabinet is approved, its recommendations will be considered by a meeting of Full Council on March 3.
