Statutory Services in South Wales Central

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government – in the Senedd at 2:03 pm on 26 October 2022.

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Photo of Joel James Joel James Conservative 2:03, 26 October 2022

Minister, as you're aware and has already been brought up by several Members in this Chamber, local authorities in Wales have vast usable reserves in their coffers. At the end of the 2020-21 financial year, this totalled over £2.1 billion, an increase of £600 million on the year before, with some local authorities, such as my own of Rhondda Cynon Taf, having just under £208 million in usable reserves. You will also be aware that the calculation for the amount that local authorities will receive from the revenue support grant assumes that there is no use of, or addition to, these financial reserves. This ultimately means, Minister, that local authorities are incentivised to keep increasing council tax rates year on year, and hoarding money without any financial impact on the RSG from the Welsh Government. This also means that council tax payers are hit hard year on year with higher and higher council tax bills, just so that councils can keep increasing their financial reserves. With this in mind, Minister, what assessment have you made of limiting the amount of usable reserves that a council can hold before the RSG is affected? And what impact assessment have you made of the detriment that households face when local authorities continue to increase their council tax rates when they have such substantial usable reserves?