Minister announces “better than expected” settlement for Local Government

Local authorities will receive more than £4 billion funding from the Welsh Government in 2016-17 Public Services Minister, Leighton Andrews has announced.

The figure represents a decrease of just 1.4%, from the amount received last year on a like for like basis and includes £35m to continue the Welsh Government’s commitment to prioritise schools funding.  An extra £21m is included for social services.

Announcing the provisional Revenue Support Grant (RSG), the Minister said:

“I propose to set Local Government revenue funding at £4.099 billion, a decrease of 1.4% or £57million compared to 2015 16.  This is a considerably better settlement than Local Government was expecting and is good news for local services in Wales.

“We have protected the funding for Local Government in Wales over the course of this Assembly term. As a consequence of UK Government decisions since 2010-11, spending on local services in England has decreased by around 10% in cash terms, while in Wales it has increased by 2.5%.

“In setting council tax levels for 2016-17, I urge Local Authorities to think seriously about the funding challenges they face and to balance this with a consideration of the financial burden on households.”

The settlement also includes £244 million to, once again, maintain full entitlements for eligible applicants under the Council Tax Reduction Scheme.

£31.1 million of funding previously provided through the Outcome Agreement Grant has also been included in the RSG. This will provide Local Authorities the maximum amount of flexibility in how they set their budgets. In total, this means that annual funding of over £190 million has been transferred into the settlement since the beginning of the 2010 Spending Review.