Support quality, independent, local journalism…that matters

From just £1 a month you can help fund our work – and use our website without adverts. Become a member today

Caerphilly County Borough Council is spending £67.04 less on each of its 176,005 residents this year due to budget pressures.

The council’s total savings represent 2.7% of its £438.72m budget. 

The council is planning £11.8m of savings this year and is predicting a £48.34m budget shortfall by 2025/26.

But how does it compare with the rest of Gwent?

Council tax payers in Gwent are seeing the biggest cuts per head in Wales as local authorities struggle to get to grips with squeezed budgets. 

Both Newport and Monmouthshire councils have been highlighted as among the councils making the biggest savings per resident while the two authorities top the table when it comes to savings as a percentage of their budgets. 

The figures, compiled through analysis of council finances by the BBC shared data unit, show councils across Wales are planning at least £182 million of savings in the current 2023/24 financial year while the 20, of 22 councils, which responded say they predict a combined two-year funding shortfall of £394.8m by 2025/26. 

Across the UK the 190 authorities surveyed said they would need to find £5.2 billion to balance the books by April 2026 – even after making £2.5bn of cuts this year. 

Newport council is making savings of £19.5m this year, with only Rhondda Cynon Taf (£28.7m) and Swansea (£20.3m) reducing spending by more – but neither represents as a big a percentage of their overall budget as the amount being saved in Newport, which at 5.2% of its total £373m budget is the largest such figure in Wales. 

That is closely followed by Monmouthshire where the £10.15m being cut this year works out at 5.1% of its £200.81m budget. 

When it comes to the savings per resident Newport is reducing spending by £122.10 for each of the city’s 159,658 citizens while in Monmouthshire there will be £108.90 less spent on all of its 93,194 residents. In Torfaen spending per resident is reducing by just £41.82.

Only Powys council, at £123.50, is reducing spending more per resident than Newport, while it and Rhondda Cynon Taf (£117.10), are the only councils making more savings per resident than Monmouthshire. 

Newport is predicting a £26.97m shortfall in funding by 2025/26 while Monmouthshire anticipates being £15m short of what it needs to fund services in two years time. 

The situation facing other Gwent councils shows Torfaen Council has planned £3.87m of savings this year and expects a £17.36m shortfall over the two years. 

When Torfaen’s cabinet agreed its budget in March it said cuts and changes to services as a result of its savings would be “minimal”. 

In Torfaen the council is spending £41.82 less on each of its 92,453 residents while the savings amount to just 1.7% of its £223.00m budget. 

Blaenau Gwent, which has a budget this year of £181.85m and a population of 66,993, didn’t respond to the survey but in February this year said it would have to make £3.03m in cuts and savings during the 2023/24 financial year.