Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Local Government, Mark Isherwood AM, has made fresh calls for a review of the funding formula for Local Authorities following last month’s announcement that all six of the North Wales authorities will receive a year on year reduction in their funding, whilst In comparison, 7 of the 12 South Wales authorities will receive an increase-in or continuation-of the level of funding from last year.
Mr Isherwood raised the matter in the Assembly Chamber yesterday, asking the Cabinet Secretary for Local Government why he “felt the current local government funding formula is fit for purpose, has the full support of local authorities across Wales and is able to keep pace with changing priorities of local government services”.
He said:
“I can note that, following my lead, the Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) coined a term for you - 'Mr Bumble'. And, despite what you and the Finance Secretary have claimed about agreement by the WLGA and the Finance Sub-group, the WLGA's Chief Executive stated before Committee just two weeks ago that the formula as it currently stands is held together by duct tape and sticking plasters, and that it probably needs a long hard look at it, and he further explained that such a review could take three to five years.
“Your own colleagues, including the Minister for Environment, recently called for the Welsh Government to ‘undertake a review of the support given to council services’. The First Minister met with Labour Council Leaders about funding, which we believe should have been open to all Welsh Council Leaders. The Welsh Conservatives have been calling for a review for years, but all the Welsh Government has done is divert the blame to local authorities and tinker around the edges, and, of course, the Leader of the Conservative group in the WLGA tells me ‘the standard response is that the WLGA were party to creating the formula. That's true, but it was constructed in partnership with the Welsh Government a long time ago and it's not now fit for purpose’.
“Will you, therefore, now listen to this growing chorus of voices from all parties and political persuasions, and initiate a review of the formula? If not, please tell those bodies why you still tend to repeat what we've heard from you in your earlier responses”.
Responding the Cabinet Secretary said “the Formula is reviewed year-on-year-on-year, and Conservative Leaders take part in that”.
Mr Isherwood added:
“Well, that's a very timely response, because, since you took your post a year ago, you have continually peddled the story that Conservative Councillors in Wales are happy with the funding they've received and that they wouldn't want Conservative policies in Wales. You told my colleague, Russell George, last month, 'I tell the Conservative group that their Councillors do not want Conservative policies in Wales; they are delighted to have a Welsh Labour Government delivering support and funding to local authorities that Conservative councils in England could only dream of. So, when I meet Conservative Councils, what they tell me is that what they need is a Labour
Government'. Something pretty much like what you've already said to us today.
“So, I put that to the Conservative Group Leaders across Wales. The first response I got was, 'A bit of a joke.' The second, 'He's demonstrated again and again that he has no real comprehension of the issues we're facing in local government', and then terms like, 'The funding formula is a total disaster’, ‘not fit for purpose', and they said your claims were both 'ludicrous' and 'nonsense'. I quote.
“Furthermore, it seems that even Labour Councillors have been supportive of some UK Conservative policies, such as at the Tomorrow’s Democracy event on Monday, the Labour leader of Newport came out in support of devolving business rates to Local Authorities, and revealed that the Labour leadership contender that you endorse is also in favour of devolving business rates to Local Authorities.
Therefore, will you now stop trying to deflect the serious issues facing local authorities, drop the adversarial position you've built up over the last 12 months, and work with councils of all persuasions, many of which are coalitions, to find a way forward so that their funding is fair, acknowledging that the points I've raised today were not something I plucked out, as you might say, from a party lines-to-take paper, which I rarely ever look at and almost never use. These were given to me first-hand by the persons I quote, either in Committee or in response to my requests from the bodies concerned.”