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Cabinet. The Cabinet makes most of the council's decisions.
2025/26 draft budget and medium-term financial plan
Cabinet agreed the draft budget proposals for public consultation. These are a council tax rise of 6.7%, the savings in Appendices 4 and 10, the fees and charges in Appendix 6, and the investments in Appendix 2, including those for schools. Cabinet also approved using £199,000 from the Transformation Reserve to pay the costs of the savings in Appendix 5, and noted the savings already made under delegated authority.
Performance Scrutiny Committee - People. Scrutiny committees question decisions and can recommend changes. They don't make the decision.
Budget and Medium Term Financial Plan 2025-26
The minute records these comments and recommendations from the Committee to the Cabinet: reduce community centre charges or offer short term financial support; invest in community outreach in Children's Services, Adult Services and Prevention and Inclusion; increase short term beds rather than reduce them (proposal C1); noted concern about National Insurance increases; requested the cost of placements outside the county in Children's Services; and asked to receive the agendas and recordings of the Place and Corporate scrutiny budget meetings. These are recommendations to the Cabinet. The minute does not record a Cabinet decision.
Performance Scrutiny Committee - Place and Corporate. Scrutiny committees question decisions and can recommend changes. They don't make the decision.
Review of council-run community centres
The Committee recommended that Cabinet consider governance arrangements for community assets transferred to community groups, so they are run in line with legislation and good practice after transfer. Community asset transfer (CAT) is where the council hands a building to a community group to run. The Committee expressed concern about closing Caerleon Community Centre, which serves older people in a small community, and recommended promoting the centres to increase use and encourage volunteers. It also asked for clarification on whether the Council can transfer Rivermead Community Centre under the new CAT policy, given that the developers built it as part of planning conditions.
Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee. Scrutiny committees question decisions and can recommend changes. They don't make the decision.
2025-26 budget and medium-term financial plan: process and public engagement
The Committee made these comments and recommendations. It asked for more information on the closure of the landfill site and future plans for the waste that would usually go there. It recommended that the consultation survey invite alternative suggestions to savings, and views on whether people would accept higher council tax, fees or charges. It recommended specific questions on service areas, or separate surveys for each area. It recommended using ward meetings to gather feedback from residents who attend. It asked for an information report on the analysis of budget consultation outcomes, to be shared in autumn 2025-26. It recommended that future budget consultations begin after the Christmas season.
Performance Scrutiny Committee - Place and Corporate. Scrutiny committees question decisions and can recommend changes. They don't make the decision.
2026/27 draft budget and Medium-Term Financial Plan: Place and Corporate
The Committee agreed to make these comments to Cabinet: (1) future consultations should give residents more chance to comment on how extra government funding received late in the budget cycle should be used; (2) Cabinet should carry out a further review of the future direction of Newport Matters, given rising production costs and earlier public consultation feedback; (3) the Council should review its insurance brokerage arrangements (the broker who arranges the Council's insurance) regularly, to secure value for money and plan better for premium changes; (4) the Committee was content that each Head of Service had plans in place to help deliver a balanced budget; (5) the Committee asked to receive updates from the review of fees and charges.
Items are linked when their titles share most of their words and they fall within 18 months of each other. Councils don't number reports across meetings, so a few links may be wrong, and a step may be missing if its title changed a lot. Each step links to the meeting, where the council's own papers are.