Part of 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Local Government and Public Services – in the Senedd at 3:07 pm on 3 October 2018.
The Presiding Officer will be aware that one of my first acts as a Member here back in 2007 was to undertake a review of rural poverty and deprivation in rural communities and the memory of that investigation stays with me today. We understand that poverty in rural Wales can be very different to poverty in urban communities. We understand that very well. The formula does seek to review those issues and does seek to ensure that all authorities receive fair funding that meets the needs that they have. We recognise that the quantum available to us this year and next year is not what we would wish it to be, and the responsibility for that lies not with the formula but with the failed austerity policies pursued by the United Kingdom Conservative Government. We were told by the Prime Minister this morning that austerity is over. My fear is Brexit will mean that, for rural Wales especially, austerity will be deepened and broadened and lengthened, and not ended in the way that the Prime Minister has somewhat naïvely believed.