Senior councillors have agreed the Powys County Council draft budget for 2026/2027, which includes a council tax increase of 4.9 per cent.

At the council’s Cabinet meeting on 20 January, Finance portfolio holder Cllr David Thomas pointed out that over half of the households in the county receive some sort of council tax discount.

Next year the council predicts its budget need will be £402.547m, which is over £35m more than this year’s budget of £367m.

The Welsh Government is set to give Powys £267.532m next year and the extra council tax increase is supposed to provide an extra £7.388m, which takes the figure up to £122.982m, giving a combined total of £390.514m.

This still leaves a gap of just over £12m which will need to be filled by cuts and savings, which includes a £6m reduction in council pension contributions.

Cllr Thomas said: “It’s important to note this will not impact on the pension benefits of current or former employees in anyway.

“In proposing this council tax increase of 4.9 per cent there has been careful consideration of affordability for Powys residents.

“More than 53 per cent of our residents will receive support to meet their council tax bills, from exemptions and discounts to eligibility from the Council Tax Reduction which totals over £13m for 2026/2027.”

He stressed that the Cabinet don’t have the final say on council tax, which will be set along with the whole budget at a full council meeting at the end of February.

Cabinet member for Adult Social Services, Cllr Pete Roberts drew his colleagues’ attention to the budget survey findings.

The survey was held from 4 December to 4 January and received 251 responses.

Cllr Roberts said: “It’s worth reflecting in that survey, 65 per cent (163) of residents backed a mix of raising council tax and managing our budgets effectively.

“We asked where people want to prioritise services and they identified Adult Social Care, Education and Highways, and we’ve invested £8m, £7m and £2.5m into each of those areas.”

He added that the survey showed that 72.5 per cent of respondents wanted to see investment in schools.

Cllr Roberts said: “There is always the question – are we, as Cabinet, listening?

“And if you look at the responses I think this budget matches our priorities and the public’s priorities on delivering the best we can do for the residents of Powys.”

Council Leader Cllr Jake Berriman alluded to the unofficial budget consultation that he and Cllr Roberts had conducted in Llandrindod Wells.

Cllr Berriman said: “The people we spoke to overwhelmingly sympathise with the difficulty of producing a balanced budget when faced with the scales of what to cut and what to spend.”

Cabinet unanimously backed the draft budget proposals, which will now be subject to scrutiny.

The final draft budget decision will take place at a full council meeting on 26 February, when all 68 councillors get the chance to vote on it.