Vale of Glamorgan Council will receive £208.901m in funding from Welsh Government in 2024/25, a real-terms cut in its funding for the next financial year.

Cllr Lis Burnett, Leader of the Council, said: "The settlement announced today puts the Council in an incredibly difficult position. A real-terms cut in any circumstances would be challenging to deal with but when demand for some of our most critical services and the cost of delivering many others is rising very quickly it means that some very difficult decisions will need to be taken. 

"The provisional settlement is in line with our financial models and is one that we have been preparing for throughout the year. A huge amount of work has been undertaken in recent months and now that funding for next year has been announced we will be able to publish our own budget proposals in January. 

"Our absolute priority will always be maintaining the services relied upon by our most vulnerable residents. We must ensure that children and young people, those with additional needs, and older people continue to receive the care and support that they need. This principle was central to our budget strategy for this year and will remain so for 2024/25. 

The changes to public services that councils across Wales will be forced to make in the next year are the result of the UK Government's renewed austerity agenda. This is austerity on top of austerity in the face of unprecedented levels of inflation and public sector budgets are seeing the effect of this.

"The Vale of Glamorgan Council has a strong record of finding new and innovative ways to deliver our services. We will continue to find new ways of working to deliver on what we know matters to local residents."

The annual funding settlement from Welsh Government makes up more than half of the Vale of Glamorgan Council's annual budget. The rest is provided by Council Tax, charges for services, and funding through a proportion of business rates collected across Wales. 

 While the level of each of these for next year is still to be decided the Council estimates that with the provisional settlement announced today there will be a £9.4m gap in its budget for 2024/25. This will be met by a combination of measures such as changes to council tax, charges for some non-statutory services, and the authority's ongoing savings and transformation programme.