At the meeting of Full Council on Wednesday, March 5th, Members agreed to the Cabinet’s proposed Budget Strategy for 2025/26, meaning that RCT Council has delivered a balanced revenue budget for the forthcoming financial year.

Despite the pressures on local government, driven by 14 years of continued underfunding for public services under the last Tory Westminster Government, the Labour-led Council in RCT continues to demonstrate a sound management of the County Borough’s finances.

Welsh local authorities were, however, given a funding boost by the Welsh Government prioritising funding our councils through the the best funding settlement for Wales in at least 14 years which was provided by the new U.K. Labour Government in Westminster in their first autumn Budget.

Thanks to this change of approach, coupled with RCT Labour’s ongoing sound management of the Council’s finances, the Revenue Budget for 2025/26 was able to see some significant investment going in to the key frontline services that residents rely on, including:

• £13m to ensure that RCT schools are fully funded – once again seeing RCT Labour delivering on the commitment to protect school core budgets and ensuring they are funded for the cost pressures they face.
• Allocate a crucial £17m for social care services to help to continue to modernise the offer and respond to the demand.
• Set the 2^nd lowest council tax rise in the whole of Wales, continuing the trend of consistently being either the lowest or one of the lowest over the last decade.
• Setting aside funding to help the Council to prepare and respond to major weather events – they are becoming more severe and more frequent.

Following agreement of the Revenue Budget, Members subsequently agreed the new, 3-year capital programme, which will see over £225m invested into our communities over the next 3 years.

This ambitious and significant funding programme continues the relentless drive of the RCT Labour-led administration to deliver more improvements to infrastructure and facilities right across the County Borough.

In the last decade alone, over £1 billion of capital funding has been invested in Rhondda Cynon Taf!

In agreeing the capital programme, residents can expect to see:

• Continued investment to improve our roads, pavements, bridges and transport network.
• Further investment for parks, play areas and leisure facilities.
• More investment in our schools and educational settings, modernising learning environments and giving our children buildings that are fit for the 21st Century.