Commenting on the news today that Powys County Council is to receive a 1.2% cut in its budget from April next year, Montgomeryshire AM Mick Bates said:
“Although a 1.2% cut in the settlement for Powys will mean challenging times ahead, I am pleased that this year Powys has not been penalised compared to other local authorities in Wales and I am confident that the Council will work hard to make the efficiencies needed.
“In the past few years we have seen cuts in the sparsity grant and have had to push hard for a funding floor for Powys within the Local Government Settlement, as the Assembly Government has failed to recognise the needs of rural areas and penalised Powys with a consistently poor allowance in comparison to the rest of Wales.
“A report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation has found that the cost of living in rural areas is 20% higher than in urban areas and a single person living in a village needed to earn at least 50% above the minimum wage (£5.93 an hour) to make ends meet. Delivering public services, such as social care services or home to school transport, also costs far more in rural areas due to an ageing and sparse population and challenging infrastructure.
“I have long campaigned for a review of the sparsity indicators within the local government finance settlement, to address this imbalance in cost of delivering services in rural areas. I hope that this year’s settlement marks a turning point from the unrealistic budgets that have been imposed on Powys by the Assembly Government in the past.”
