Responding to the government’s statement on the Fair Funding Review 2.0, the council’s Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance, Cllr Lynne Jones said: “It’s already clear that RBWM is in a select group of councils that are worst hit by the changes to how government grant is distributed - with much of the grant funding we currently receive being redistributed to other areas. We are now working through the numbers and detail.
“Government appears to be assuming that all councils levy the equivalent of a national average council tax level, to determine future levels of government funding. As RBWM’s council tax is extremely low, yet we are experiencing the same increasing service demand pressures as other areas, being able to raise our council tax to bring it more in line with other councils nationally is the only viable option.
“The only other alternative would be increasing our dependence on exceptional financial support, which would mean increasing our debt and our borrowing costs. We are already going as far as we can to make savings across all departments, but we must protect services that the borough and our residents deserve.”