Cash-strapped council to write to Wales’ First Minister

Richard Evans – Local democracy reporter

A cash strapped council has voted in favour of writing to Welsh Government to question the way local authorities are funded.

At the finance and resources overview and scrutiny committee meeting at Bodlondeb this week, Conwy councillors were debating a report on the financial sustainability of Conwy and local government.

The purpose of the report was to provide the committee with the Financial Sustainability reports, both locally and nationally, from Audit Wales.

But the “local report” made a recommendation suggesting councils needed to make more savings.

‘Weaknesses’

The review, which took place between March and July 2024, concluded that, “Although the council has arrangements to support its financial sustainability, these arrangements are not effective in addressing the scale of its budget gap and low reserves, which provide a significant risk to its long-term sustainability without transformational change.”

The report added: “There are weaknesses in how the council identifies savings. To change this, the council should work with officers and members to develop arrangements for identifying savings of a scale that can impact on its identified budget gap.”

Conwy is currently considering a third council tax rise of around 10% for the third year running, having already slashed front-line services in previous budgets, including education, resulting in school staff redundancies.

Under-funding

But Conwy blames the Welsh Government for years of under-funding through the annual local government settlement.

Last year Conwy received the joint lowest percentage increase in Wales, a 2% rise, with an improved 3.6% provisional rise looking likely in 2025/26.

But the authority claims the formula used to calculate the amounts given to councils is outdated and fails to acknowledge the demography of the area, including that Conwy has the second most elderly population in the UK.

The local democracy reporting service reported last month that the authority is facing a £19m budget shortfall in 2025/26.

But councillors argued they were now instead making cut after cut to services, not savings.

‘Flawed’

Cllr Abdul Khan said: “I have issues with the audit office mentioning savings. We are not saving anymore. It’s all cuts, and they know very well, so if they tell us to cut more, that would be easier for us.

“Because when we used to have a weekly bin collection, it’s gone to monthly. It’s a cut on services. When children in school can’t get special needs help, that’s a cut to the service. When an elderly patient can’t get the treatment they want, it’s cuts.”

Cllr Khan then said Conwy were funded less than other counties due to having a lower population and the funding not acknowledging the demographic.

He added: “What they don’t realise is our needs are more per head because of the elderly and the special needs and so forth. So the funding has been flawed, and it has been said many times.”

Cllr Anne McCaffrey recommended that Conwy write to the First Minister, requesting a strategic review of local government funding, which would be shared publicly. She also suggested the council write to the local government minister, inviting them to attend a meeting with full council or group leaders.

Cllr McCaffrey also proposed the council to write to Carmarthenshire County Council, as it was the ‘only council’ to be commended by the Welsh Audit office for its financial resilience.

The committee voted in favour of the proposals.