Councils ‘face £432m shortfall in Wales even after future council tax rises’ say WLGA group

A group of councillors from eight different local authorities in Wales have pointed to Scotland to contrast a 6% settlement there, compared to the 3.1% from Welsh Government.

In their budget Welsh Government said they were committed to maintaining a 3.1% increase in core local government funding from 2023-24 to 2024-25 to protect services provided by local authorities – with Wrexham getting 3.2%.

Council services include education, social services, housing support, and community services. Despite this commitment, there is acknowledgment of significant challenges such as high inflation, pay pressures, energy costs, and increased demand for services, which may force local councils to make difficult choices affecting the services they offer.

In the wider budget announcement Welsh Government note “sixty-six per cent of local authority resources are directed to education and social services”.

It looks likely such a sum for Wrexham will still mean a large percentage rise in council tax, possibly up to 12.5% has been mooted, with further ‘efficiencies’ meaning service and job cuts ahead.

Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) is a politically led cross party organisation that seeks to give local government a strong voice at a national level. The Association is a membership organisation that represents all 22 local authorities in Wales, the 3 fire and rescue authorities and the 3 national park authorities are associate members.

Councillor Mark Pritchard, the Independent Group Leader on the WLGA – and Wrexham Council Leader – responded to the settlement on behalf of the 13 councillors from eight different local authorities : “The Independent Group is extremely disappointed that the Welsh Government haven’t increased the settlement to all local authorities in Wales and are very surprised that this didn’t happen. The Welsh Government are fully aware of these unprecedented times and the extreme pressures faced by the 22 local authorities in Wales as they try to continue to deliver public services across the country.

“Since the time of austerity £1bn has been lost from the Welsh local government budget. Councils will face an estimated funding shortfall of £432m (even after Council Tax rises).
Severe demands and cost increases particularly in Adult Social Care and Children’s Services have exacerbated this issue and the costings are only going to continue to rise in this area.

“We are also disappointed that no extra money has been given for the increase in Teacher’s pay and that pressure will now fall on all local authorities in Wales to foot this extra expenditure. The Welsh Government should look across the border to Scotland who have a different approach (using the tax raising powers) to give local government a 6% rise.

“We also wish to say that the Welsh Government continues to waste money on individual schemes which are costing the tax payers of Wales millions of pounds – the cost of £32m for the 20mph scheme comes to mind, the proposal to increase the Senedd Members from 60-96 which will cost approximately £18m a year, free school meals for all primary school aged children at a cost of £93.5m, free prescriptions for all at a cost of £0.5bn, the purchase price of Cardiff Airport and subsequent loans awarded to it – totalling over £111m when the private sector realised that it wasn’t profitable to continue.

“We would also like to point out that over £90m will be taken away from the 22 Welsh local authorities’ budgets with reference to grants in 2024.”

Below is the draft budget increase table: