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Councillor concerned over ageing population

Thursday, 6 February 2025 at 16:41

By Ted Peskett - Local Democracy Reporter X @TedPeskettNews

A councillor has expressed concern over the rate at which the Vale of Glamorgan's population is ageing.

It is estimated, according to a recently-published council report, that the population aged 65-84 in the county will grow by 5,266 people between 2019 and 2039.

The same report states that the population aged 85 and over in the Vale of Glamorgan will grow by 2,904 people.

At a meeting of Vale Council’s healthy living and social care scrutiny committee on Tuesday, members were told the population projections were based on 2019 data and the Welsh Government will soon make data from 2023 available to the council.

Scrutiny committee member, Cllr Neil Thomas said: “The growth is significantly higher than that in other parts of Wales. That is concerning. It has huge implications for our budgetary concerns as well as our health concerns.”

Vale Council is facing a budget gap of £8m and over the next five years it expects to have to save £35.5m.

Cllr Thomas, who represents Labour in the St Augustine's ward, added: “As I know well older people tend to start to suffer more and more with ill-health and that puts pressure on both frontline and secondary health services.”

The councillor went on to ask what the council is doing to try and stress this issue to the Welsh Government.

In its response to the Welsh Government over the budget settlement that it received, Vale Council noted the uplift in funding compared to last year.

However the local authority added that the amount it received is still insufficient.

The council’s operational manager for accountancy, Gemma Jones, said the way the Welsh Government allocates its funding in respect of older people in the settlement was a key line of the authority’s response on the budget consultation.

She said: “Where we have an increasing number of older people with an increasing amount of complexity there are budgetary issues and I suppose where there is a mismatch with the formula and maybe some issues like the introduction of the social care cap…that is exacerbated the more older people a local authority has."

“I understand it is a theme that [the Welsh Government] are intending to pick up in future years as part of their rolling review of the funding allocation.”

The council plans to use a range of measures, including a 6.9% increase in council tax, to bridge the financial gap it faces. Some of the measures will also include changes to services including social care.

Last November, the council announced that it was looking at changing the way it charges for its telecare service.

Telecare provides older people with an alarm system that alerts carers in times of need, like if they have suffered a fall, and is intended to allow them to live more independently.

A council document on savings proposals shows that a telecare “expansion and fee review” could bring in £20,000 for the local authority in 2025-26.

A report on planned changes to the service published last year proposed all telecare customers to be charged a flat rate for the service with those who have it included as part of their care and support plan having to pay for the service separately.

For some it would mean having to pay an additional £8.32 a week.

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