MORE than 1,000 lower-paid council workers including school kitchen assistants and bin lorry drivers are in line for a pay rise under a proposed budget.
Councillors will be asked to agree a budget for the 2026/27 financial year which includes a council tax rise of 3.95 per cent which is an extra £64.28 taking the bill for a band D home to £1,691.60 from April before police and community council charges are added.
The budget, proposed by Torfaen Borough Council’s ruling Labour cabinet, also intends investing in services supporting young people impacted by domestic violence, to take on apprentices, support for youngsters who aren’t in education or training and extra funding to help schools support pupils with Additional Learning Needs.
As well as setting aside money for nationally agreed pay rises for council staff, and covering pay increases for schools, Torfaen’s proposed budget will put an additional £700,000 into its pay pot to make adjustments for those currently earning slightly more than the Foundation Real Living Wage.
Increases to the Real Living Wage, an enhanced voluntary rate above the legal minimum paid by some councils and other employers, has reduced the gap between those earning the lowest rate and those above them on the council’s pay scale.
Torfaen council leader Anthony Hunt said: “It will give over 1,000 key staff on lower grades a pay rise that is people like teaching assistants, canteen assistants in schools, drivers of refuse and recycling lorries and social workers will benefit from that approach.”
£264 million budget
The Panteg councillor reminded the cabinet that more than 75 per cent of the £264 million budget would be spent on social care and education which he described as “two key priorities” but said it will also fund “services people care about such as libraries, play services and environmental services such as refuse collections and continuing to raise the recycling rate.”
Additional money received from the Welsh Government, as a result of a Senedd deal with Plaid Cymru, has also been used to reduce the council tax increase to 3.95 per cent from the 4.95 per cent figure the council had used in its planning.
Cllr Hunt said the authority was benefiting from “two Labour governments working together to invest in services” and on council tax said: “Torfaen now has the fourth lowest council tax in Wales and lowest rise, cumulatively, over four years.”
Full council
The budget, which will include the full council tax charge, must be approved by the full council when it meets at the Civic Centre, in Pontypool, on Tuesday, March 3, though as Labour has a comfortable majority it is expected to pass.
Cllr Hunt said: “I will be pleased to take this to council next week and propose it.”
Cabinet member, Pontnewydd councillor David Daniels, said the investments “are something to be proud of” and asked if service directors could give an outline of them “to advertise to the public what we are doing”.
Cllr Hunt said he would take that as a suggestion for next week’s budget meeting.