5. What steps is the Welsh Government taking to improve local government performance in delivering local services? OQ58435

The Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021 put in place a new performance regime to drive improvement in local authorities across Wales. Alongside this I have agreed £800,000 funding for the Welsh Local Government Association improvement programme to support corporate improvement within councils.

Thank you for your initial response, Minister. As I’m sure you’ll recognise, councils are often at the front line with many pressures that communities are currently facing, which, of course, have a knock-on effect to pressures within councils. I’m sure you would have taken note of the BBC article over the weekend, where the WLGA and council leaders were highlighting some of the pressures that they're facing. Now, some of these, of course, are financial, but some of these pressures also present themselves in other ways, whether it be through difficulties around recruitment at times or around housing pressures—we're seeing a significant increase in demand in those areas. But all of this is whilst local authorities are having to deal with a new legislative programme, often causing more pressure and demand on officer time. And I’m sure, Minister, you would agree that there needs to be a clear balance between need and capacities for local authorities to deliver, and I know there is some concern within local authorities that the amount of new legislation that they're having to deliver is causing significant pressure in them delivering their vital services. So, in light of this, Minister, is there any immediate action that you'll be taking within the legislative programme to make sure our councils do have the capacity to deliver the services that we all rely on?

One of the commitments in our programme for government is to reduce the administrative burden on local authorities, so we've already started that piece of work by approaching all local authorities, both leaders, chief executives and those within the Society of Welsh Treasurers and others in order to understand what they see as the particular administrative burden. So, we'll be looking forward to the report, which I understand is due—. It will probably be a couple of months at least off yet, but when that's forthcoming, it will help us pinpoint those areas where we can make some pragmatic and practical changes to help reduce that administrative burden.

We have provided local authorities with some funding to help with the establishment of the corporate joint committees—I think it was £100,000 per CJC—in order to help with some of those costs, in terms of implementing that piece of legislation. But, again, if there are particular areas of concern where there might be ways in which Welsh Government can support local authorities, perhaps through providing expertise or finding a way that things are only done once, obviously I'd be keen to understand what those specific problems are and we can have a look at what we can do to help.

Minister, around £45 billion of tax reductions for people and businesses by 2027 could have paid for public sector increases of 19 per cent, improving services, filling vacancies, and growing the economy here in Wales where nearly a third of people are employed in the public sector. Minister, the mini budget from the UK Government does little to help the public sector, including councils, cope with inflationary pressures and workforce recruitment to deliver local services where they are needed more than ever now. Minister, what plans do you have to help with recruitment and these pressures that local government are facing, so that they can continue to work in partnership with Welsh Government? Thank you.

Thank you very much for raising that and, of course, the statement last Friday, I think that one of the biggest impacts of it will be the fact that there was absolutely nothing there to support public services. You’ll have heard me say yesterday that our Welsh Government budget is now, across these three years, worth up to £4 billion less than it was when we set our spending plans, and obviously that has a knock-on impact then for local government and the difficult choices that they're going to be having to make over the autumn and the winter, but then also into the next financial year as well. So, we'll continue to press the UK Government to find additional funding to support public services. There will be public services and local authorities across the border making the same arguments to the UK Government, and I think that the sooner they wake up and recognise that they have to support public services the better, and we'll be able to provide that additional investment then to support our local authorities and health and other public services in Wales.