Local Government Funding

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Finance and Trefnydd – in the Senedd at 2:00 pm on 6 March 2019.

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Photo of Mick Antoniw Mick Antoniw Labour 2:00, 6 March 2019

Minister, one of the consequences of Tory austerity is not only does the Assembly have less money, but also it means that local government has less money. And, of course, one of the pressures is on the leisure centres that are provided, which are of considerable public value to our communities. We are already seeing leisure centres having to close or be transferred into trusts. What I'm asking you, Minister, is to consider this: there is an opportunity, by removing the obligation in respect of council tax on local authority leisure centres, to actually put them on a level playing field with trusts. That would save, certainly in my council of Rhondda Cynon Taf, in the region of £800,000 a year. If those authorities have to actually close or transfer those leisure centres into a trust, we lose that money in any event. So, this would be, I think, an imaginative way of actually supporting our community publicly owned leisure centres where we pay decent pay—decent conditions, accountable to the community. And, by removing the obligation and creating a level playing field, we could do a lot to protect them and to protect this element of public service.