Mike Hedges AM calls for Wales funding gap to be closed by Westminster Government.

Mike Hedges AM calls for Wales funding gap to be closed by Westminster Government.

Speaking after the assembly Senedd session Mike Hedges AM said…. ‘We can all suggest various formulas for changing the funding for local government; no matter how you analyse and change the formulas, the origins of the problem lay in the fact that Wales has been chronically underfunded by Westminster. Wales would have an extra £800 million based on 2008 expenditure – it has not received this because of spending decisions in Westminster. The Tory group have a cheek to seek to criticise the funding criteria without raising the underfunding of Wales by their friends and colleagues in Westminster.’
Mike Hedges AM – Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Well, can I say, on a positive note, I’m very pleased to hear new people taking an interest in local government and being supportive of local government from the opposition benches? I’ve only been used to Siân Gwenllian and David Lloyd supporting local government over recent years—so, glad to see other people joining.340
Can we look—? [Interruption.] Can we look—? Can I just remind people that it wasn’t that many years ago when the Conservatives wanted to cut local government funding? And they still haven’t— [Interruption.] And they still haven’t decided where they’re going to take the money from. If you look at the formula, is the formula perfect? No. But why did it come in? It came in to ensure that authorities were adequately funded through our rate support grant. But that was before the position of business rates was taken, and they were then removed from local government.341
What the council needs to spend is calculated in a standard spending assessment, and it’s amazing, really, when you look at the league table of standard spending assessments for education and expenditure for education, how very close they are to each other. What causes the amount to go up and down is mainly population change. That is the main driver—342

Copy To Clipboard Share To Facebook Share To Twitter Share To LinkedIn

Copy To Clipboard Share To Facebook Share To Twitter Share To LinkedIn
Business rates were centralised and collected locally and then redistributed with the rate support grant as part of aggregate external finance. Now, how does the money go out? Blaenau Gwent gets £1,587 and Monmouth gets £995. Is that fair? Well, Blaenau Gwent has 8.8 per cent of its properties in band D; Monmouthshire has 65.8 per cent of its properties in band D. So, a 1 per cent increase in council tax in Blaenau Gwent and a 1 per cent increase in council tax in Monmouthshire makes a huge difference. The average is £1,344 per capita. For half the councils that would be more; for half, it would be less. 347
I’m going to read out the councils in order, to get this on the record. First is Blaenau Gwent, second is Merthyr, third is RCT, fourth is Neath Port Talbot, fifth is Denbighshire, sixth is Caerphilly, seventh Torfaen, eighth Newport, ninth Gwynedd, tenth Carmarthenshire, eleventh Ynys Môn, twelfth’s Bridgend, thirteenth Ceredigion, fourteenth Powys, fifteenth Conwy, sixteenth Pembrokeshire, seventeenth Swansea, eighteenth Wrexham, nineteenth Flintshire, twentieth Cardiff, twenty-first the Vale of Glamorgan and twenty-second Monmouth.348
We regularly hear calls for the formula allocating money to be changed. Representing Swansea, in seventeenth place, I could say how it would benefit us, but, give everyone a standard amount, the top 12, in terms of how much they get, would end up getting less, and the bottom 11 would get more, unless there’s an increased amount of money there. I was a member of the distribution sub-group many years ago, when it made a minor change to the highways formula. It was 52 per cent population, 48 per cent road length; it went to 50 per cent for each. What happened was there were winners and losers. Powys and Gwynedd won, Cardiff and Newport lost. 349
For everyone who says we should have greater regard for sparsity and rurality, there is someone saying we need to take greater account of poverty and deprivation. Councils such as Pembrokeshire will say, with some justification, their population increases massively during the summer months, and thus their costs. Councils such as Cardiff will say they have major events and a daily influx of people, and that increases their costs. All say they need additional funding. 350
And I think, really, you could change the formula—. Everybody thinks: you change the formula and everybody’s going to win. That’s financially impossible and numerically illiterate. If you’ve got the same amount of money to be distributed around 22 councils, every time you get a winner you get a loser. Local government has had an increase since the initial funding was announced. Wales should have an additional £800 million, based upon 2008 expenditure, according to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance, a figure no-one has yet disagreed with. We are being short-changed by Westminster. There are those saying—[Interruption.] There are those saying—351
16:55

Copy To Clipboard Share To Facebook Share To Twitter Share To LinkedIn
Of course, there are those saying that merging councils will solve part of the problem. For that, I have two words—Betsi Cadwaladr—or three words—Natural Resources Wales. Further additional money—[Interruption.] Further additional money—[Interruption.] Further additional money for local government can be found from, for example, transportation and economic development. When local government needs more money to support current services, it doesn’t help when ring-fenced money is provided for something new. The teachers’ pensions cost is going to have to be met. Councils do not say to schools, ‘You have to meet it from efficiency’; they look to try and find the money for them. 356
Finally, it’s no good pitching public services against each other or asking for more money for each public service—one a week. The amount of money we get is the block grant—and they used to say it was a block grant, until some people criticised me, but it’s the amount of money we’ve got to use. Can I just ask, when the Conservatives sum up, if they can explain where they’re going to get the additional money for local government from? And, if they’re taking it out of health, exactly how