Council Leader calls for ‘common sense’ and introduction of funding floor on Welsh Government settlement

The Leader of Wrexham Council has called on Welsh Government to introduce a funding floor to the settlement package, to help Wrexham and other councils in Wales.

The annual settlement grant allocates money on an individual council basis, with the total grant divided among councils on the basis of a complex formula that seeks to ‘take into account the relative needs and available resources of different councils’, and other factors such as population changes, with more details in this PDF.

Wrexham Council had been hoping for an uplift around 4 per cent, with one council insider saying at the time that they were “gutted” by the draft settlement figure.

The overall Wales figure is a 3.8% uplift in funding, slightly below the 4% figure the Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) had hoped for.

Leader of Wrexham Council, councillor Mark Pritchard was asked his thoughts on the draft settlement, and if there had been any discussions with the Welsh Government since the figure was announced, and if there had been any feedback.

Cllr Pritchard pointed to the introduction of a ‘floor’, a minimum level of funding for all councils to be brought in,  “As the leader of Wrexham Council, I am extremely disappointed the announcements of the settlement.”

“There’s ongoing discussions and negotiations through the WLGA with the ministers and the Welsh Government to improve our settlement to introduce the floor.

“Last year, they didn’t introduce the floor and this year, they’ve announced it without a floor. Let’s hope that we can work together with the Welsh Government to improve the settlement through a floor. We will know by the 22nd of February, if there’s going to be a floor.

“If there’s a floor that will help us dramatically. We’re looking for a minimum floor of 3.6%, that will affect five councils at the lower end of the 22.

“What I can’t understand is that in the past there was a floor put in place to protect and support the local authorities who had a poor settlement through the formula. That’s why it was there. This will be the second year if they don’t incorporate a floor that Wrexham has been affected.

“If the floor isn’t introduced, it will have implications and have knock on effects to us as a council with regards to our services and our budget proposals.”

The Council Leader added that any such uplift would be used to fund education, children’s services, adult social care – and resurfacing of Wrexham’s roads by the council.

Deputy Leader Cllr David A Bithell echoed the comments, adding : “Obviously, we would have liked a better settlement but clearly, we’ve got to work through the difficulties of the provisional settlements. We’re doing that as best we can, but also dealing with the global pandemic at the same time.

“There are tremendous pressures across the council at this current time in every department due to the pandemic. I think when we produce our budget, we need to make sure that we try and identify the highest risks we’ve got across the council. We’re trying to do that.

“Hopefully, if we can get more money from Welsh Government, and we get the floor, that will help the council going forward.”

Cllr Pritchard added, “To introduce a floor of 3% it would cost around £2 million, to introduce a floor of 3.6% I think it is around £4 million. It’s not a lot of money that’s in the scheme of it. But, that amount of money would help us out dramatically.”

“I’m hoping there will be common sense, a coming together, an understanding and support from the Welsh Government on the settlement.”