Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Finance and Trefnydd – in the Senedd at 1:40 pm on 20 November 2019.
Thank you very much for raising that issue. I had the opportunity just this morning to meet the local authority finance sub-group, alongside the local government Minister, to explore the issues relating to the budget this year. They share our frustration, as I know that Members in the Assembly do, about the delay in terms of publishing the budget. What I will say is that, over the course of the summer and since the spending review announcement was made in terms of the additional £593 million to Welsh Government for the next financial year, I've been working really closely with colleagues across Government. We've developed what we think is a really good budget. It prioritises health, as we said we would, and it also seeks to give local authorities the best possible settlement. We had a discussion today that recognised that, in the interim period between publishing our draft budget and our final budget, there is more than likely going to be a budget from the UK Government, which will obviously have knock-on implications for us, but we'll maintain that effort to give the best possible settlement to local authorities.