Welsh Conservatives to force Senedd vote on council tax hikes

They have thousands of people now working from home, leaving swathes of empty office space: that space - currently funded by the taxpayer - should be consolidated and either sold, or leased. Also, if they can afford to spend eye-watering sums on DEI non-jobs then they aren’t short of money. Try getting your local councillor to respond to either of these points and you likely get radio silence.

Backup funds are important, I assume many cons are in business, do they run with zero £ backup? I don't like my bills this high but 14 years of austerity reaches to all parts of the UK through many systems. What with global warming hitting us harder, the Cons want to make repairs impossible?

I know when the UK Government increases non-devolved taxes, then cut Wales block, that then affects Welsh Government coffers, who in turn give local authorities less money so they themselves lament the fact hy hiking rates to fill the shortfall in their budget. In some cases both are to blame for wastage. UK & Welsh government. Only difference is, where one does it covertly, the other, overtly that affects Wales. Whitehall says it gives Wales more money and the Welsh Government says money received has been in real terms cut. And the blame game ensued. But it's what they, Welsh councils, spend the money on received is often the problematic. Because we as ratepayers often don't engage with local politics leaving councils the freedom to waywardly spend our money on whatever they see fit. Yes, some authorities are worse than others, but how many times have we seen changes made only later to be returned back to the way they were costing tens of millions. A fine example is Swansea. Anyone familiar would remember the bendy bus and one-way system. Months of chaos , road works , in some cases pedestrian deaths, only for it to be returned back to the way it was. We need not only to hold national but local politicians to account. And this why as seen over the border in England with Birmingham and other English local authorises that on verge of bankruptcy which the Welsh Conservatives never seem to highlight? Telling. Odd really seeing LWC Darren Millar and predecessor Andrew RT Davies were very vocal when came to comparing the failures in Wales with the successes in the so-called land of milk & honey England.

So once again the Conservative Party who always claim they want devolution from Cardiff Bay to local authorities now want the Welsh Government to tell all local authorities what to do with their cash reserves.

The "cash mountain" consists of reserves that are needed to manage finances effectively, especially as some projects can take many years. Anyone claiming that councils should just spend their reserves doesn't understand local government finance.

Not a good idea to use reserves for day to day running expenses. What happens if an unexpected cost crops up: Will the Welsh Government then have to bail them out?