, Local Government and Housing Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 2—Minister for Finance and Local Government
Overall, I do think that the budget does provide now for effective local government, going forward. And you've picked out a couple of really exciting agendas. I think, particularly in terms of digital transformation, there is so much going on at the moment…
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 2—Minister for Finance and Local Government
When I provide a written response to that, I'll provide some clarity; I'd have to check that, I'm afraid.
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 2—Minister for Finance and Local Government
I will double check, but that will either be funding from the COVID reserves or from within the education department. But I will double check that and provide a note to committee.
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 2—Minister for Finance and Local Government
Within this financial year, I believe the uplift, from memory, is 1.75 per cent, and I think that Welsh Government provided the 0.75 per cent, and local government found the 1 per cent from within their own resources, from which they would be planning in any…
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 2—Minister for Finance and Local Government
It's already the case that some local authorities pay the real living wage, and some actually pay in excess of the real living wage for their social care workforce. Some have already met that themselves with the services that they provide. But one of the…
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 2—Minister for Finance and Local Government
Thank you for that series of questions. I just want to first recognise what you've said about the cost-of-living crisis. The meeting I have with the Chief Secretary of the Treasury later today will be an opportunity for myself, and my colleagues from Northern…
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 2—Minister for Finance and Local Government
Yes. So, we've maintained the provision of that fund at the £244 million. That is a significant amount of funding. I think the funding arrangements for the council tax reduction scheme do reflect the fact that it is jointly owned by the Welsh Government and…
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 2—Minister for Finance and Local Government
No, I was just thinking really that, at this point now, when the budget is laid, there's a challenge now, isn't there? So, if committees, if individual Members of the Senedd want to see additional funding put into one area, the challenge there is to identify…
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 2—Minister for Finance and Local Government
I think I could understand having this conversation in some previous years when local authorities have received a very poor settlement, but actually, the reality is that local authorities next year are looking at a 9.4 per cent like-for-like increase, which…
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 2—Minister for Finance and Local Government
So, I haven't heard any councils providing any suggestion of that kind of figure. If local authorities did come forward with that kind of assessment, then I'd be interested to hear it, but I don't think that that's realistically where councils are at the…
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 2—Minister for Finance and Local Government
I'd just refer to Judith's previous points, really, about the work that the Welsh Government has done to further understand the figures and the refining of those figures then that has been undertaken by the WLGA in the light of more recent data, for example…
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 2—Minister for Finance and Local Government
I don't think that we can talk about a strategy of reducing funding to councils because clearly, at least over the most recent years and looking ahead to the future, Welsh Government has provided the best possible settlement to local authorities. And I know…
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 2—Minister for Finance and Local Government
Yes, I do, and I think that council tax is an important part of the funding landscape for local government, partly because of course it gives that very local accountability. And I think that that is important in terms of being able to ensure that individuals…
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 2—Minister for Finance and Local Government
Again, I'll ask Judith to come in on this, but the level of supported borrowing has been maintained at a consistent level for a number of years, and that does help local authorities to plan those long-term commitments of loan funding. And there's always a…
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 2—Minister for Finance and Local Government
I was going to say thank you for raising that. I know we've had the opportunity to meet to discuss this particular issue and that you've been making strong representations to other colleagues in Welsh Government on this as well.
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 2—Minister for Finance and Local Government
Thank you. Yes, across several areas, I know there has been some disappointment at the capital funding settlement, and that really is a reflection of the capital settlement that we received from the UK Government. Clearly, our capital funding actually…
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 2—Minister for Finance and Local Government
I'll check with Judith on this point, but I don't think that they're—. I think the point, really, that this is such a small amount of money in the greater scheme of things is the relevant one here.
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 2—Minister for Finance and Local Government
So, the budget that we have actually takes us up to the end of the forthcoming three-year period. So, this will be for a future Minister to decide at a future point, but I think the important thing here is the amount of funding received through national…
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 2—Minister for Finance and Local Government
I'm really not going to be drawn into expressing a view on what local authorities decide to do with council tax. I don't think it would be appropriate for me to do so. But can I ask Judith to come in in terms of the discussions that she and the team have been…
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 2—Minister for Finance and Local Government
And this is a matter for local authorities, and it's not something that I want to express a view on, because it is entirely within their gift to decide what to do with council tax, and, obviously, they'll be considering this alongside those pressures that…
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 2—Minister for Finance and Local Government
I think my view is probably not relevant in the sense that—
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 2—Minister for Finance and Local Government
I genuinely think this is a matter for local authorities—
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 2—Minister for Finance and Local Government
—with the local government. So, yes, and our officials—probably, I'll ask Judith to say more—talk regularly and in detail about these pressures and how we can consider them as part of the overall settlement. But I think what's different this year is that…
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 2—Minister for Finance and Local Government
Well, the number provided on social services, for example, was £144 million, and then we included the £36.5 million in respect of the real living wage, so we met in full the pressures identified there—
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 2—Minister for Finance and Local Government
I think you heard from Councillor Hunt this morning that this does allow local authorities to respond to the pressures that they're facing and it allows them to go further than that. That is the analysis that I would have. I recognise the pressures, of…
