Council funding and services

Jane HuttLabour

24 January 2024, Plenary

Welsh Conservatives Debate: Local government funding

…debate—if there is a collective appetite from local government to carry out a fundamental review of the local government settlement funding, we will act upon it together. And can I say 'thank you' to Mike Hedges, who has explained again today the importance of how the formula is made up? Of course…

Tagged for: “local government settlement”Official Record

Joel JamesConservative

24 January 2024, Plenary

Welsh Conservatives Debate: Local government funding

…their bank accounts. I believe wholeheartedly that it is time we finally had an independent review of council funding formulas and that there is more transparency and accountability as to what our money is used for and why so much is kept in reserve bank accounts. As we know, councils receive and…

Tagged for: “council funding”Official Record

Mike HedgesLabour

24 January 2024, Plenary

Welsh Conservatives Debate: Local government funding

…level of support that the Government provides to local authorities. This support is made up of the revenue support grant specific formula and ring-fenced grants and the amount distributed from business rates. Unfortunately—and I say this almost every year—the Welsh Government refuses to publish the…

Tagged for: “revenue support grant”Official Record

Mike HedgesLabour

24 January 2024, Plenary

Welsh Conservatives Debate: Local government funding

…and I hope the Conservatives are going to listen to this—are the mechanisms for the distribution of the revenue support grant to local authorities to enable them to charge the same level of council tax for the provision of a similar standard of services. They're intended to reflect variations in the…

Tagged for: “revenue support grant”Official Record

Mike HedgesLabour

24 January 2024, Plenary

Welsh Conservatives Debate: Local government funding

…made up from reserves and by increasing charges and raising council tax, as well as cutting services. Council services are not just education, social services, potholes and refuse collection. If I was to list the full range of services provided by councils, I would use up the full five minutes and…

Tagged for: “Council services”Official Record

Laura Anne JonesConservative

24 January 2024, Plenary

Welsh Conservatives Debate: Local government funding

…to work out which one is which. Welsh Conservatives continue to call for an independent review of the council funding formula. It is utterly unfair. It punishes rural areas, and doesn't take into account the unique problems that they face. It is clearly a political choice to keep the current funding…

Tagged for: “council funding”Official Record

Jack SargeantLabour

24 January 2024, Plenary

Welsh Conservatives Debate: Local government funding

Deputy Presiding Officer, I note the motion in front of us today calls for reviewing of the local government funding formula—an important point to make. I also note the amendment from the Welsh Government says it will continue to develop and maintain the formula in partnership with local government.…

Tagged for: “local government funding formula”Official Record

Peter FoxConservative

24 January 2024, Plenary

Welsh Conservatives Debate: Local government funding

…from their budget proposals. And I believe what they're saying. So, why is this? Well, the fact is the local government settlement at 3.1 per cent is poor. It's a huge real-terms cut to our councils delivered by the Welsh Labour Government, who well know how incredibly hard it will be for councils…

Tagged for: “local government settlement”Official Record

Sam RowlandsConservative

24 January 2024, Plenary

Welsh Conservatives Debate: Local government funding

…the Conservative UK Government to support councils in England. Now, on these benches, we agree with the Welsh Local Government Association, and stand with our councils in Wales, so that any consequentials from that announcement from the UK Government should be passported straight to our councils so…

Tagged for: “Welsh Local Government Association”Official Record

Sam RowlandsConservative

24 January 2024, Plenary

Welsh Conservatives Debate: Local government funding

…that money is entirely up to them. Unfortunately for local councils, Welsh Labour continue to use a local government funding formula that is fundamentally unfair. We see councils in north Wales and rural areas punished, creating a winners and losers system. As one example from my own region in the…

Tagged for: “local government funding formula”Official Record

Carolyn ThomasLabour

24 January 2024, Plenary

Urgent Debate: Job losses at Tata Steel and the future of the steel industry in Wales

I think we all agree in the Senedd, cross-party, that the UK needs to produce its own steel, as the WLGA states, for so many reasons: security of access to product rather than relying on the market; importing from across the world in boats, which add more carbon, and maybe created in a less…

Tagged for: “WLGA”Official Record

Lee WatersLabour

24 January 2024, Plenary

Topical Questions

…challenge to the process. The other two members of the panel are Kaarina Ruta, transport adviser at the Welsh Local Government Association, and Phil Jones, chair of the 20 mph taskforce group that made the initial recommendations. The team will work with Welsh Government officials, local authority…

Tagged for: “Welsh Local Government Association”Official Record

Rebecca EvansLabour

24 January 2024, Plenary

Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government

Yes, this is a really important part of our work in terms of developing our budget process and particularly so through the budget improvement plan that was published alongside the draft budget. It’s a rolling five-year programme, so every year we update that to set out the new actions that we’ll be…

Tagged from the title of its item or question: “Local Authority Funding”Official Record