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A council tax hike more than double the rate of inflation is on the way for Cardiff residents as Labour councillors say austerity is far from over.

The Labour administration's 2019-20 budget includes an increase in council tax of 4.9% as the authority faces a £32.4m budget gap.

This year's council tax hike of 4.9% would mean an extra £1.09 per week on a Band D home – or £56.68 a year.

That is more than double the latest rate of inflation – which was 1.8% in January.

The authority also expects council tax increases of 4.5% every year for the following four years – up to the 2023-24 financial year.

These increases would raise an extra £27.6m from council tax in that time but the council would still have to find savings of £77.2m.

Cardiff council is planning £19m of savings across all its departments.

That means around 55 full-time jobs are set to be lost at the authority – with cuts to staffing planned in areas such as the council's street cleansing, waste management and recycling, and libraries and hubs.

But there will be extra money for Cardiff's schools and social services to deal with growing demand for services.

The budget was approved by 39 votes to 31 after amendments by the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and Plaid Cymru-supporting independent councillor Neil McEvoy were defeated.

Councillor Chris Weaver, cabinet member for finance, said: "Raising council tax was not an easy decision to make but we know many in our city rely on our services and in order to protect them we need to strike the right balance.

"This is likely to be one of the lowest council tax rises in Wales."

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Council leader Huw Thomas called for a "radical change in direction" in UK government to halt austerity.

He told Cardiff residents: "We will continue to fight to ensure frontline services are protected. We will work to ensure everyone of you can contribute to and benefit from our city's success.

"[The budget] will help change the lives of many many people in this city and I'm proud to support it."

The Conservatives had proposed an alternate budget with an increase in council tax of just 1.9%, paid for by removing the council's 'slush fund' of £3m.

Their alternative budget would also have increased the bus subsidy fund to £1m.

Cllr Gavin Hill-John, the Conservatives' finance spokesman, said: "Delivering a less than 2% increase in council tax is not going to be easy but it can be done.

"If you are going to persuade the residents of Cardiff that 5% is an appropriate increase we have to get the basics right.

"We have to be more focused on our clients the taxpayers."

Conservative leader Adrian Robson said the economy was picking up and austerity was beginning to come to an end.

He said: "What this administration is doing is hitting the just-about-managings, those who will find the tax rise difficult.

"The failure to replace the bus station by now is having a dramatic effect on bus services in the city. It is the Conservative group that will get this city moving again.

"A 5% rise is simply too high wherever in Cardiff you live."

Conservative councillor Kathryn Kelloway said "there's nothing inevitable or unavoidable about this tax hike".

But Labour councillors denied austerity was close to being over.

Cllr Owen Jones said: "Austerity is hurting everybody and many councils are in crisis because of years and years of cuts."

The Liberal Democrats amended budget also proposed reductions in the proposed rise in council tax from Labour’s 4.9% to 4%.

The Lib Dems budget also included an additional £500,000 into helping rough sleepers off the streets.

(Image: Richard Swingler)

Former Lib Dem council leader Rodney Berman said: "Yet again the Labour administration is defaulting to set the highest level of council tax they think they can get away with.

"There's scope to set a lower rise in council tax while protecting investments in local services you want to deliver."

Councillor McEvoy proposed a £1.1m family support fund and £351,000 advocacy service for parents whose children were in care.

He also put forward a £1.7m fund to "abolish" bedroom tax, paid for by savings across council services and a senior management restructure.

Cllr McEvoy said: "The bedroom tax is a horrible tax. It punishes the most vulnerable in our communities.

"We want to turn around the number of children who are unnecessarily taken into care and kept there most unjustly. I'm dealing with a family that should never have lost their children and it's costing the council £500,000. It's a real scandal."

Cllr McEvoy stirred the council chamber by appearing to suggest people who are working class or with 'Cardiff accents' are more likely to have their children taken away.

Cllr Graham Hinchey, cabinet member for children and families, said this was a "slur" and that children are not taken into care unnecessarily.

"Taking children into care is the last resort," he said.

"We're continuing to invest into children's service."

Conservative councillor Lyn Hudson said the UK Government's removal of the spare room subsidy "is not a bedroom tax".

"It's extra space in a house when it's not needed or it cannot be afforded," she said.

"People are calling it the bedroom tax because they want the extra space and don't want to pay for it.

"I feel the residents are being misled by saying 'you don't have to pay the bedroom tax'".

Plaid Cymru councillor Keith Parry said it was a "great pity" that Cardiff council was not sponsoring the St David's Day parade.

Cllr Weaver, summing up, said it was "not true" that Labour looks to increase council tax first, as Conservative councillors had said.

He said: "It's fiscal nimbyism. You praise the Westminster government then complain when the cuts come down the M4 to Cardiff."

What's in the budget?

Cardiff's schools budget is going to increase by an extra £10.4m in cash but not all the funds are going to go directly to schools.

Some of the money will be retained by the council to meet the costs of the authorities' 21st Century schools rebuilding programme.

(Image: Stride Treglown)

Schools will also have to find the money to match fund the Education Improvement Grant and pay additional fees to the council for services it provides.

Social services will get an extra £5m but the council still wants to save £6m in this area.

Some of these savings would come from opening five children's homes during 2019 so young people can be cared for closer to home.

The budget for planning, transport and environment budget will be cut by £4.2m, including £160,000 employee costs cut from street cleansing, and £134,000 staff costs from waste management and recycling.

But the council is planning to invest an extra £1m for road repairs and a one-off £750,000 fund over the next two years to subsidise essential, non-profitable bus services.

The council is also promising to spend £312,000 on neighbourhood deep cleans and street ‘blitzes’ and £180,000 would be spent on piloting new street-cleansing technology.

The New Theatre is set to be taken over by a private leaseholder, saving the council £404,000, while new attractions at Cardiff Castle including Dr Who film tours would earn £122,000.

(Image: Western Mail Archive)

The costs of cremation will also rise from £560 to £640, burials would increase from £660 to £760, and the cost of re-homing a dog would go up by £30 and a puppy by £10.

There would also be £868,000 savings from the housing and communities budget.

That includes a £250,000 cut in staff costs from restructuring the management of Cardiff's libraries and hubs - which the council says will "require significant changes to staffing".

The budget includes a £300,000 boost for the reserve for the council's homelessness services – taking the total up to £1.5m.

In 2019-20 the council proposes to spend £580,000 from this one-off reserve – which is there to help address future homelessness pressures.