4. How does the Welsh Government ensure fair funding for local authorities across north Wales? OQ57558

I ensure fair funding for all local authorities in Wales by prioritising local government and health services in budget decisions and through a transparent, equitable and jointly produced distribution formula with our local government partners.

Thank you for that answer, Minister. It's often raised with me that the funding formula for local authorities needs addressing. I think it's been raised here quite a few times as well. For the last few years, the debate has gone round and round in circles, with council leaders writing to Welsh Government, Welsh Government then saying the Welsh Local Government Association need to agree as a collective, and then they have different views because there are huge winners and losers. But, councils are still feeling the pain of austerity, and although this year was a good settlement, the variance per capita and per council can be hugely significant, with the gap between the highest and lowest paid council widening year upon year. The cumulative impact can mean the baseline for some remains low each year, so the difference between two neighbouring councils can be £650 per resident and £50 million or more per annum. For example, a £20 million highways maintenance grant through the formula can equate to £1.2 million for one authority and £850,000 for another. If this continues each year then the cumulative impact continues to grow as well, so one will do well while the other one struggles. So, could the distribution committee that sits below the finance committee investigate the funding formula going forward, or having a funding floor?

I thank Carolyn Thomas for raising that point. I think it's worth reminding ourselves why the funding floor was originally devised. It was always, really, intended to be a temporary measure to mitigate the impact of unmanageable negative changes in authority funding in individual years and not to reduce the range of allocation between authorities. We have worked hard to improve the amount of funding provided directly to local authorities. As I mentioned earlier, we've done so by allocating upfront, at the provisional stage, to give local authorities the potential to plan across the full three years.

Obviously, in preparing the final settlement, I'll have to give very good consideration to the consultation process. At the moment, it is a provisional settlement and the consultation closes on 8 February, so I would have to consider the responses to that. If authorities do collectively request a funding floor this year, then, obviously, it would have to be a redistributed floor, so that's where funding would come from other authorities above the chosen floor. I've got the finance sub-group meeting on 9 February, and I'll certainly have those discussions with council leaders again to explore whether they want to review the funding formula. That's something that we've said that we are open to doing, but it would have to come as a request from local government.

Of course, every local authority will have different ideas as to how things should work and which things should be given greater weight. You know, we've got deprivation and sparsity needing to be taken into account in future, and, obviously, we'd want to keep those very much in there. But I will have that discussion again with colleagues on 9 February to explore their views. And, Llywydd, Carolyn Thomas never misses an opportunity to raise road maintenance with me. 

Ever since the current Welsh local government formula was introduced over 20 years ago, Flintshire has received one of the lowest settlements in Wales. Speaking here two years ago, I pointed out that four of the five bottom local authorities in terms of funding increases were again the same authorities in north Wales, including Flintshire. I pointed out then that council tax payers in Flintshire faced an 8.1 per cent council tax increase, despite Flintshire councillors having launched a campaign, Back the Ask, highlighting cross-party frustration about the funding they received from the Welsh Government, which led to a large delegation of cross-party councillors coming here to lobby Welsh Government Ministers, calling for the funding formula to be reviewed.

Following your announcement of the provisional settlement for 2022-23 in December, Flintshire's Labour leader criticised the formula used to calculate how much money it receives to provide services as it struggled to balance its books. It's receiving a 9.2 per cent increase, but that still places the county third from bottom out of 22 Welsh local authorities in terms of the amount it receives per person in the area, leaving the council's reserves at one of the lowest levels in Wales and without the cushion other local authorities have. So, when will you stop hiding behind the Welsh Local Government Association—a fairer formula will mean losers as well as winners, and turkeys don't vote for Christmas—and recognise that the 22-year-old funding formula has reached its sell-by date and needs independent review desperately?

I would remind Mark Isherwood that the average increase across Wales for the local government settlement next year is 9.4 per cent and Flintshire has a 9.2 per cent increase, so it's not very far off the average.