3. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on local government funding for 2018-19? (OAQ51076)

I will announce the provisional local government settlement for 2018-19 on 10 October.

Thank you, Cabinet Secretary. Since 2010, the austerity agenda of the UK Government has seen an overall Welsh Government budget cut by 8.2 per cent. In that time, local government in England has suffered real-term cuts of 25 per cent in their revenue budgets and, conversely, the Welsh Government has limited cuts to local government here to 5 per cent over the same period. We’re now in year 8 of the Westminster-imposed austerity and local authorities are under severe budgetary pressure. With further significant cuts to the Welsh Government budget projected over the coming years, what more can the Cabinet Secretary do to help local government to protect key services?

Dirprwy Lywydd, the first thing that this Government did was to provide Welsh local government in the current financial year, partly as a result of our agreement with Plaid Cymru, with a no-cash-cuts budget for the first time in many years. I made it clear—I couldn’t have repeated it more often, I think—to local government colleagues that the breathing space that that budget provided needed to be used to plan for tougher times and harder choices that lie ahead. And I have to say that to them because the resources available to the Welsh Government go down every year in this Assembly term, and it is simply the reality with which we have to grapple that if the resources available to us to invest in public services reduce—vitally important public services that local authorities provide—that will have an impact on the budgets we can make available to them. I can assure the Member that in the budget round that I will report on Tuesday of next week, we have worked as hard as we can to protect those services on which people rely, but I would not be sending a message out to colleagues in Wales that had a ring of truth about it if I didn’t repeat to them that the years ahead are going to be very challenging.

Cabinet Secretary, I heard your answer to Jayne just now. Further to that, Welsh Government figures reveal that spending on central administration by local authorities is increasing by £11 million this year. Meanwhile, across Wales, budgets for roads and libraries are set to fall by nearly £6.73 million. The central running cost is rising and spending on vital public services is falling. What consideration will the Cabinet Secretary give to this matter when he decides the local government funding settlement for 2018-19, please?

Well, Dirprwy Lywydd, in my discussions with local authority leaders, I believe that, across different parties, they work very hard to try to make sure that they can move as much of their funding as possible into front-line services and to minimise the take from their resources spent on administration. In the local government reforms that I have announced on the floor of this Assembly, you will know that we intend to make a serious push with our local authority colleagues on backroom services, on shared services, on trying to make sure that the money that is needed to support services centrally is minimised so that that money can be deployed at the front line. That’s a conversation that I believe local authorities in Wales are very open to having, and I intend to go on having it with them.