Draft Budget for 2023-24

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government – in the Senedd at 2:12 pm on 15 February 2023.

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Photo of Alun Davies Alun Davies Labour 2:12, 15 February 2023

I'm grateful to the Minister for that answer. I was very engaged and taken by the answer the Minister also gave to Peter Fox in an earlier question. The answer could have been given by a different Minister a decade ago, in reality. Local authorities are suffering from a squeeze in funding, and the people who suffer most are the poorest and the most vulnerable people. And the local authorities that suffer the most are those local authorities least able to sustain additional income through fee income and other commercial income, and those tend to be the poorest parts of the country as well, places like Blaenau Gwent, which I represent. The Welsh Government has a responsibility to those people, and if I'm quite clear, Minister, it's not good enough simply to say, 'It's the fault of the UK Government, we're not doing anything.' Those days are gone. What I want to see from the Welsh Government is real action to ensure that, perhaps, shared services as you've just debated, take a hit, but, more potentially, a reorganisation of local government to put people first, to ensure that we have local authorities capable of delivering the services we ask them to deliver, and partners in ensuring that we can address the real social issues we're facing—social and economic issues we're facing—across Wales. Blaming the Tories was yesterday's game. I believe the Welsh Government's got a responsibility to those people today.