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From April, council tax in Caerphilly County Borough will rise by 7.9%. But how does the rate of council tax in Caerphilly compare with other areas in Wales?

Well, council taxpayers in Caerphilly will actually be paying the lowest amount of council tax in Wales.

A band D property in Caerphilly County Borough will pay £1,693 a year, in comparison to a band D property in neighbouring Blaenau Gwent – the area with the highest council tax – which will pay £2,181.84.

This equates to a £488.53 difference between what residents of Caerphilly and Blaenau Gwent pay.

How much will people in other parts of Wales pay in council tax?

From April 1, Caerphilly County Borough residents will pay the lowest rates of council tax in Wales. This is how much council tax residents living in Band D properties will pay across Wales, from lowest to highest. The figures include the police precept for the council area and the average precept for community councils.

Caerphilly Council leader Sean Morgan said: “All local authorities are under huge pressure due to the continual austerity forced on us by central government.

“But, due to the way this Labour administration has managed the finances over the last eleven years, council tax in Caerphilly is the lowest in Wales.

“We will continue to manage the authority to keep bills as low as possible.”

When the 7.9% increase was approved earlier this year, Cllr Morgan described it as the “most difficult budget” the council had ever faced.

At a special council meeting on Thursday February 23, Cllr Morgan said the cost of running council services had risen by £55 million in one year.

However, the rise was fiercely criticised by the leaders of the council’s opposition groups.

Leader of the Plaid Cymru group, Cllr Lindsay Whittle, described it as “unacceptable” during a cost-of-living crisis and said: “People out there cannot afford it.”

The council’s public consultation revealed that 74% of respondents wanted a lower council tax increase than proposed, or no increase at all.

Independent group leader, Cllr Kevin Etheridge, said: “The ruling group has not listened to the residents. Out of 271 responses to the council tax 35% did not support any increase while 39% supported a lower increase – so how have they listened to the residents?”