Shadow Local Government Minister Mark Isherwood AM has called on the Welsh Government to respond to the joint request by all six North Wales Local Authorities for a 4% funding floor in the Local Government Finance Settlement to “protect services and work against above inflation council tax rises”.
Speaking in the Welsh Parliament yesterday, Mr Isherwood referred to the letter sent by the Leaders of all the North Wales Councils to the Local Government Minister earlier this month, calling for the protective measure and warned of the consequences if this is not granted.
He said:
“On 10 January, a letter was sent to you by, or signed by, the leaders of all six North Wales County Councils regarding the Local Government Settlement for 2020-21. It said, 'Even with the positive settlement this year, we will all be looking at some service reductions and above inflation Council tax increases. In the light of continued challenges (for the 2020/2021 financial year) we wish to ask you for a funding floor of 4 per cent in the Local Government Finance Settlement, to be met from Welsh Government reserves'.
“They said this was primarily because, in the provisional settlement for 2020-21, ‘four of the five bottom Councils are from North Wales’, and ‘without a floor, most North Wales Councils will be faced with the biggest challenge in terms of seeking cuts to services’, whereas ‘a floor will help to protect services and work against above-inflation Council Tax rises in the bottom six Councils’.
“How will you be responding to this request, which I believe has also been shared with the Welsh Local Government Association?”
The Minister, Julie James AM said the Welsh Government have “asked for more evidence as to the hardship that having the biggest uplift in any local government settlement that they've ever had would bring”.
She added:
“This is above the settlement that any of them could have been expected to be predicting, and it's very hard to see how they would have unplanned service cuts as a result. But, if they want to present some evidence of what that might look like, I'm very happy to look at it. But, again, I will emphasise that, when we are looking at putting more money into that sort of settlement, we are looking at where to take it from. So, we would also have to consider how much such a floor would cost, and where that money would come from”.
Mr Isherwood also questioned the Minister over calls for fair access to the Integrated Care Fund, highlighting issues third-sector representatives are experiencing in accessing the fund.
The aim of the Integrated Care Fund is to drive and enable integrated working between social services, health, housing and the third sector and independent providers.
He said: “That Wales Audit Office review ( of Integrated Care Fund) said: ‘'A key aim of the fund is to promote joint working between statutory and third-sector organisations' but the 'third-sector representatives that we spoke to identified a range of challenges which have affected their ability to access the fund' and had 'left the third sector disconnected from the wider programme where they could equally have valid contributions to make to some of the larger-scale projects’.
“Their particular report on North Wales was even more concerning in this context, where it says that 'the way the fund has been managed at national, regional and project levels have limited its potential to date...little evidence of successful projects yet being mainstreamed and funded', and it specifically said that: 'Third sector representatives told us they felt they have insufficient access to the fund and that they benefit predominantly when spending on other projects slip' and it called for 'ways to ensure fair access to the Integrated Care Fund for the third sector'.
