Senedd Finance Committee warned budget cuts could see thousands of council redundancies across Wales

The Leader of Wrexham Council has said “I would be surprised if there were any non-statutory services being delivered in Wrexham” in three years time.

The Senedd Finance Committee heard from Wrexham Council Leader Mark Pritchard on the settlement from Welsh Government, as well as his wider views on the impact of the budget on Wrexham.

The committee was taking evidence from several council leaders across Wales as they scrutinised the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25.

Cllr Pritchard told committee members, “We all recognise the increase of 3.1 per cent and, as we say, that’s welcomed, but it wasn’t welcomed by me, and the reason being for that is that it wasn’t enough.

“I do accept that the Welsh Government has its own financial pressures, but the 3.1 per cent just adds up to £170 million; we need £800 million to be sustainable across the 22 (councils in Wales). That’s what the shortfall is this year.

“Since austerity started, we’ve had over £1 billion taken away from the local authority’s budget. I’ll repeat that: over £1 billion.

“With regard to services, it’s going to be devastating. We’re going to have redundancies, job losses. In three years’ time, if we have any non-statutory services in Wrexham, I’ll be surprised. Because we have a legal duty, as we all know, to protect the statutory services. That’s where we are.

“If you add up all the redundancies and job losses across Wales, for all of us, across the 22, it will be in its thousands.

“My plea today, all we want, as 22 authorities, is to be funded properly, so we can deliver quality services to our residents.”

Mike Hedges MS pressed the Council Leader on his comments, “You said you were going to do away with all non-statutory services. Does that mean you’re going to close every park? Does that mean you’re going to close every community centre? Does that mean you’re going to close every leisure centre, and you’re only going to have one library in Wrexham?”

Cllr Pritchard replied, “I didn’t say we were going to close every non-statutory service; what I said was I would be surprised if there were any non-statutory services being delivered in Wrexham.

“The non-statutory services in Wrexham add up to £28 million, and they cover education, early intervention, business advice and support, housing, assets and the economy – the list is there – bus stations, road safety, grass cutting, countryside services, parks, winter maintenance, the environment department, and the list goes on. They’re non-statutory services.

“The problem is, we’ve had £1 billion taken out. This has been consistent. It’s been cuts, cuts, cuts, cuts. It’s non-stop. There’s nothing left. That’s where we are. ”

Later he added, “I would say that if there’s a choice between statutory and non-statutory, all of us in this room are going to go for the statutory service because the law states that we have to protect them, and rightly so.

“On the non-statutory services, Mike asked me the question and I think I gave him a very comprehensive reply, and I’ll state it again: it will be a breakdown of society.”

The Chair, Peredur Owen Griffiths MS , asked , “We’re coming to the end of the three-year spending review period, and the Government hasn’t provided further information on funding beyond 2024-25. To what extent does that have an impact on local authorities, and how are you going to be able to plan beyond this year? ”

Cllr Pritchard echoed the thoughts of other council leaders, adding, “Financial resilience is the most important thing, and I’ll just say this: I worked in the private sector for some big organisations. You wouldn’t run a private sector like this. We don’t know what our settlement’s going to be, so it’s a guessing game.

“Let’s be frank here, we never know what we’re going to have. Our budget process in Wrexham, like all the others, is very thorough, but we never know what we’re going to have as a settlement, so we don’t know what it’s going to be.”

“The grants as well, Chair. Ninety-three million pounds. we’ve got to set our budget shortly and we don’t know what grants we’re going to receive or where the reduction is. The only word I have to try to describe it is ‘madness’. You wouldn’t run your home finance like this, you wouldn’t run a company finance like this, and you shouldn’t run government finance on this.

“Financial resilience is important, and we need to know a lot earlier on the settlement.”

The exchange also saw several other council leaders also detailing budget issues – with Leader of Monmouthshire County Council Mary Ann Brocklesby gave a grim infrastructure update, “Some of the bridges in my county are actually near to falling down and we have to deal with it, but in order to deal with it, we have to take money from elsewhere.”