Getting to grips with a 40% reduction in its capital funding following last week’s Comprehensive Spending Review will be the biggest challenge for WAG in its forthcoming budget. The WLGA warns today that cutting councils’ funding will impact on their ability to maintain community facilities, schools and roads. Prolonged cuts to their capital fuding will have severe consequences for the way that local services are delivered and will endanger critical regeneration and redevelopment opportunities.
Cllr. John Davies (Pembrokeshire), WLGA Leader said:
“Capital spending is absolutely vital to delivering the right services, in the right facility and in the right location. Capital programmes managed by councils don’t attract the same profile as national infrastructure projects, but they are critical in ensuring that councils can continue to deliver core services that local people need and use every day in their communities.”
“Councils use capital funding to maintain school buildings, residential homes, local roads and bridges, flood defences, waste management and leisure facilities and they have already had to reduce their capital programmes in recent years as funding from the Assembly has reduced and income from the sale of assets has dried up as a result of the market down turn.”
“If the scale of cuts announced in the Comprehensive Spending Review feeds through to councils it will mean that our schools are not maintained, improved or rebuilt, that potholes will have to be left longer and plans to change the way we provide services will be delayed or scaled back. This at a time when the Wales Audit Office estimates a backlog of £2.2billion in repairs needed to school buildings.”
Cllr. Rodney Berman (Cardiff), WLGA Finance Spokesperson said:
“Capital spending not only helps communities deal with a range of diverse issues from flood risk to the demands of an aging society but it also generates economic renewal and this will be important as councils work with partners to create and build the foundations of sustainable economic recovery. We are working closely with business leaders to find ways to protect public infrastructure, especially our roads so that businesses can continue to develop and flourish.”
“The Welsh Assembly Government will have difficult choices to make when deciding how to manage the cuts in capital – especially in 2011-12 when their capital budget faces a reduction of twenty five per cent. The risks and costs associated with simply stopping projects already under development or implementation are exceptionally high.”
“Welsh Ministers have the power to give councils greater freedoms in managing their capital spending over the next period and I urge them to use that power to give councils the flexibility they need to direct their capital funding to support locally agreed priorities as this is where citizens will feel the greatest impact and benefit.”
