The Welsh Government has revealed how much money it is giving every council in Wales, with significant disparities in the size of the increase every local authority will receive. Monmouthshire is getting a 9.3% increase, the largest in Wales, while Blaenau Gwent's 6.5% increase is the smallest.
Cardiff, which has the biggest population in Wales, will receive the most funding. The Welsh capital has had its allocation for 2023-24 increased by 9% compared to last year to take it to £592m. In total, the Welsh Government gives £5.5bn of its £23bn budget to councils.
At the bottom of the list is Merthyr Tydfil council, which is set to receive £118 million, an increase of 7% compared to the last financial year. The rises, which average 7.9%, are significant but include extra money to fund a pay rise for teachers and are still lower than the rate of inflation.
Plaid Cymru Senedd spokesperson for finance and local government Llyr Gruffydd MS said: "This settlement is the price of the UK Government’s decision to impose austerity on Wales. It falls way short of what’s needed to stave off big increases in council tax and further cuts to services. It is going to cost livelihoods and it is going to cost lives.
“Whilst any additional support is welcome, some parts of Wales will now be facing double digit council tax increases. It also means that after a decade of Westminster-driven cuts our key local services will have to contract further and even be lost altogether."
The provisional local government settlement for 2023 to 2024 was published on Wednesday, the day after Rebecca Evans announced the draft Welsh budget. Read 13 things we've learnt from the Welsh Government budget announcement here.
The table below ranks the councils by allocation
The £5.5 billion in Welsh Government Revenue Support Grant and non-domestic rates will support social care, education and other key services provided by local authorities and "reflects the government’s commitment to support key front-line services and protect the vulnerable". The settlement includes funding for the real Living Wage for care workers, the teachers’ pay deal, and the Council Tax Reduction Scheme.
The table below ranks the councils by % increase compared to last year
The council with the biggest increase is Monmouthshire, which will get 9.3% extra funding compared to last year.
Ms Evans said: “This settlement builds on improved allocations in recent years and provides local authorities with a stable platform on which to plan their budgets for the coming financial year and beyond. When I announced our budget yesterday I prioritised the protection of frontline public services, and this increased funding to councils - who deliver so many of these services - is a vital part of that.'
“I recognise however that inflationary pressures being faced by services mean that local authorities will still need to make difficult decisions in setting their budgets. We will continue to work closely with local government to meet the shared challenges we face and deliver services to benefit the people of Wales.”
The Tories said their party had "long been calling for the enormous reserves held by many councils to be put to better use to ease the fiscal situation" adding that nearly half of Welsh councils had "usable reserves of over £100 million".
Sam Rowlands, MS, shadow local government minister for the Welsh Conservatives, said: "I welcome the funding settlements for councils that bares a degree of reflection to the substantial usable reserves held by some councils. It is worth repeating these calls as the hundreds of millions of reserves could certainly be put to better use delivering frontline services to local people.
“We were also pleased to see that our calls for fair funding for rural communities being listened to, with North Wales councils finally finding themselves in the top half of the table."
The provisional settlement will now be subject to a seven-week consultation period which ends on February 2, 2023.
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