Whether delivering preventative services, driving forward the local economy, providing education, social care and leisure centres or collecting bins, resilient local government is essential.
The Welsh Local Government Association described the initial Local Government Settlement as “a deeply disappointing outcome for Councils across Wales with the gravest implications for services”.
In a letter signed by representatives from each political group, the WLGA Conservative Group Leader, Councillor Peter Fox, stated “With £370m new monies arriving from Westminster, an imaginative approach to funding preventative services to keep people out of hospitals was needed. Instead, the Welsh Government has given the NHS a 7% increase and cut council budgets for the eighth year in succession” - and that “this budget is full of tired and outdated thinking”.
He also warned that “this was becoming a false economy”.
With a clear North/South divide, all six North Wales Councils would have received a cut of at least 0.5% - and three a 1% cut.
Responding to the subsequent Welsh Government announcement that – thanks to extra funding from the UK Chancellor - the funding floor had been raised from -1% to -0.5% and that an additional £13 million would take the Welsh average to a flat cash settlement, the WLGA Leader stated “Despite this welcome announcement, there is no doubt that this remains a particularly challenging financial settlement”.
With the exception of Denbighshire, which now receives a flat settlement, all North Wales Councils receive a cut, with the largest cuts in Flintshire, Conwy, and Anglesey, alongside Monmouthshire and Powys, at 3%.
So, those Councils receiving the lowest per person funding under the Welsh Government’s flawed funding formula are again hit hardest - and Council Tax payers, who already pay a higher proportion of their income on Council Tax than in any other UK Nation” - will have to bear the burden.
Welsh Government Ministers have long deflected the blame by stating that Councils in England are worse off than Councils in Wales.
What they don’t state is that it is impossible to make this comparison because Local Government funding policy has diverged significantly between the two since devolution – with, for example, direct funding for schools in England only.
They also dodge the fact that for every £1 spent by the UK Conservative Government in England on matters devolved in Wales, £1.20 is currently given to Wales.
Furthermore, the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition – Jeremy Corbyn’s own cheerleaders-in-chief – recently said that “no Labour-led council [in the UK] has insufficient reserves that it could not use to generate the resources for a no cuts budget for 2019-20”.
In Wales, Labour councils receiving the highest settlement in this budget are sitting on over £800m in usable reserves.
Although the Welsh Government has hailed this budget as having a “focus on prevention” their delivery has failed to spend better on prevention and early intervention in order to improve lives and save money.
Although an additional £30 million has been allocated to Regional Partnership Boards to deliver joined up preventative care and support, this sits outside the Local Government Revenue Support Grant, leaving Councils little ability to invest in these services.
Further:
- there have been a range of real term cuts to Public Health and Prevention programmes, and to third sector organisations delivering key preventative services - AND Third sector representatives on Regional Partnership Boards have reported “that the third sector has been seen as a bit-part player, with little or no strategic involvement”.
The Local Government Funding Formula, which has not been independently reviewed for 17 years, is overly bureaucratic, complex and out dated.
In November, Labour-led Flintshire County Council launched its #BackTheAsk campaign in full Council and received unanimous cross party support “take the fight down to the Local Government Department in Cardiff to get a fair share of national funds”.
In a joint letter to the Welsh Government, their Leader and Chef Executive stated “the disparity in formula-based funding inevitably creates a wide variation in the financial risks in Councils in Wales. Flintshire is at the extreme end”.
Its Leader subsequently stated “the Council is seeking a recognition of how the formula impacts on the Council’s low-funded position where compared to the majority of Councils in Wales”.
In a letter yesterday, he stated that “Flintshire is a low funded Council at 19th out of the 22 Councils, despite being sixth largest in population terms”, pointed out that the Welsh Government has received an extra £33 million following the recent Chancellor’s budget - and asked that this be distributed to Councils.