Caerphilly County Borough Council underspent its budget by £9.9 million last year.
This equated to around 3% of its overall budget of £325.6m.
According to a report recently presented to the council’s cabinet, the figures excludes £6.8m of savings made by the authority’s housing service.
This money will now be ploughed into the council’s £200m project to upgrade its housing stock. Around £6.6m of the £9.9m underspend will be transferred to the council’s general reserve fund, with the remainder kept in individual department reserves.
Councillor Keith Reynolds, Labour’s Leader of the council, has thanked staff and managers.
He said: “It is clear to see that managers across the authority are identifying savings and reducing expenditure in response to the ongoing financial pressures facing local government.
“Over recent years we have taken a prudent approach to budget management and this has placed the authority in a strong position as we navigate through these times of austerity.”
He added: “By working together we can continue to protect jobs, protect services and ensure Caerphilly Council remains in a strong, well-managed position going forward.
“While this outturn report is a positive outcome for the council, we cannot be complacent as we still face difficult times ahead.”
Caerphilly County Borough Council has also received a positive report from the Wales Audit Office following a review of the financial resilience of the authority.
The report said the council had good financial management and a good track record of operating within budget.
This is a brilliant way to demonstrate that a Labour run Council can perform at the highest fiscal levels whan it comes to doing the right thing by its residents.
Not only did the Labour council, against much opposition from the Welsh Nationalists Councillors sitting on the council, save millions of pounds from its operating departmental budgets when it fixed its budgets for this financial year, they were able, by further good fiscal operating management, and working in close partnership with departmental heads, save a further, almost TEN MILLION POUNDS, in order to secure reserve funds for future uses and savings on the hard pressed pockets of local residents.
Labour Party leaders and thier LABOUR party colleague Councillors on Caerphilly Council, have to be congratulated for thier extreemly good management of our Council, and long may it go on so that further advantages can be felt by residents up and down the borough. Roll on next years Council elections when we can ensure the return of such a professional CABINET team to lead the Council for a further five years.
So come next year there will be NO increase in council tax, this is what residents want to see, no more unjustified and unfair increases in their council tax which hits our already hard pressed pockets the hardest.
They would have even more money to put in the piggy bank if they were not paying the suspended former senior officers full pay for the last three and a half years!