Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government – in the Senedd at 1:56 pm on 13 October 2021.
Thank you for raising the question, and I also have discussions with local government in terms of the funding needed. But I have to say, it's not a question of what I'm willing to support; it's what I'm able to support as a result of the Welsh Government budget that we're provided with by the UK Government. So, clearly, I would want to do more for local government, but we were able last year to fund their identified workforce pressures in full, and that was a significant pressure so I was pleased that we were able to do that. And the past two settlements for local government have been the best offered for over 12 years.
In our budget discussions ahead of the summer, we agreed as a Cabinet that health and social care would continue to be our priority, and also we would seek to give local government the best possible settlement. So, I have a meeting with the finance sub-group, which includes local government leaders and others—their finance spokespeople, I should say—next week, where I'll be hearing directly from them what their pressures are for next year.
In terms of a funding formula review, I've been really clear with local government that if they want that funding formula reviewed and come to me with their request for that, I'm more than happy to instigate that review and have further discussions about that with them. That request hasn't come forward yet, but if it does I'd be very, very happy to have those discussions.