Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Finance and Trefnydd – in the Senedd at 1:40 pm on 18 September 2019.
Local authorities, of course, across Wales provide services that are greatly valued and, indeed, much needed by our older people. However, despite having the highest percentage of over-65s in north Wales, Conwy County Borough Council has historically been hit by your poor settlements. The local authority is now facing a budget shortfall of £12.5 million for the next financial year. It would take a 23.1 per cent council tax increase to cover the service pressures, meaning that, yet again, there would be even more penny pinching from our pensioners. This has to stop, and the buck falls fairly and squarely with your Welsh Government. You have the money provided by the UK Government. One pound twenty—£1.20—for every pound spent in England is spent here in Wales. The thing is, will you now commit to using some of this extra £600 million from the Chancellor to stop the strategy of continual slicing of local government settlements, and no more so than for our local authorities in north Wales?