Wednesday’s Draft Budget published by the Welsh Assembly Government shows that local government general revenue grant funding will reduce by 1.7% next year, 3.6% in real terms. By 2013-14 local government will see it’s revenue funding return to just below 2010-11 cash levels, equivalent to -7.1% in real terms.
Managing this at a time when service pressures are growing exponentially is the biggest challenge facing councils since devolution and next year in particular will be extremely challenging for councils in terms of maintaining current levels of service delivery.
Cllr John Davies (Pembrokeshire), WLGA Leader said:
“It is clear that Ministers have had to take difficult decisions and prioritise key services, including responding to the debate on ring fencing NHS funding. The WLGA supports these decisions and appreciates that the Minister for Local Government, Carl Sargeant and the Minister for Budget, Jane Hutt AM have listened and responded positively to the arguments made by local government particularly in relation to social care. I’m sure that council leaders will agree that in the current climate this outcome is as good as it gets although we will await the distributional impacts on individual councils next week and we must not forget the rising cost of services arising from inflation.”
The protection being given to education and social care is welcomed, but councils continue to be concerned that other services will be hit harder than the Draft Budget would suggest once the protection has been made. Increasing demand for council services and rising citizen expectations mean that pressure on local services is higher than ever and this will be made worse by the welfare reforms and UK department cuts announced by the UK Government on 20 October. We remain concerned about cuts to the £1 billion plus we receive in specific grants each year and which are not visible on the face of the budget.
In respect of capital, local government shares the view of the Welsh Assembly Government and is very concerned about the impact of the drastic capital funding cuts – the ability to invest in our schools, roads, flood defences and other infrastructure is vital both in terms of being able to deliver services but also has a key role to play in Wales’ economic renewal. Without any new funding for the flagship 21st Century Schools’ programme, the schools’ modernisation agenda is basically on hold and with cuts to transport grants we have to expect the quality of our road network to deteriorate further in the next few years.”
