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Dismay at Welsh Government’s funding settlement for councils in north Wales

13 Dec 2024 3 minute read
Flintshire Council Buildings near Mold by Matt Harrop is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

Alec Doyle, local democracy reporter

The Welsh Government’s settlement for north wales councils has been described as  ‘inexplicable.

Bill Crease, the Corporate Resources Scrutiny Committee chairman of Flintshire council, made the comments during a meeting to discuss the provisional settlement announced on Wednesday.

He also challenged the Welsh Government to look carefully at authorities that consistently benefit from higher funding due to deprivation.

Deprivation 

The treatment of north wales councils – and Flintshire in particular – in funding settlements seems to me inexplicable,” said Cllr Crease. “My understanding is that the reason there is this huge disparity is because the formula that determines the level of funding going to various authorities takes into consideration degrees of deprivation.

“If councils have been having inordinately high settlements which allow them the facility to build huge reserves, and yet are still not resolving the deprivation issues for which they receive extra funding, I think it is about time that authorities like our own challenge vociferously and strenuously this disparity and receive some sort of explanation as to why it continues.

“It seems to me that if I’d been paid for 30 years to sort a problem out and I had not yet sorted that problem out, somebody should be asking questions about it.”

Flintshire received a 3.3% increase in its budget for 2025/26, ranking it 19th out of the 22 Welsh local authorities.

Denbighshire was the only north wales authority in the top 10, with Wrexham the only other from the north with an uplift above 4%.

Flintshire, Gwynedd, Isle of Anglesey and Conwy were all below the national average.

Dismay

“We’re looking at this settlement with dismay,” said Cllr Crease. “We (Flintshire) are once again towards the bottom end of the funding settlement for Wales.

The funding settlement is provisional and Cllr Paul Johnson, Cabinet Member for Finance and Social Value, called on all political groups within the committee to help the council make the case to the Welsh Government for a better deal.

“Representations are being made strongly,” he said. “Noting that things are very political in this and given that Liberal Democrat-controlled Powys is also one of the councils right near the bottom of this list, I would urge our own councillors to encourage their parties to contact us to discuss issues of mutual interest about how we go forward on this.

“I would also ask independent councillors to please speak to independent members of other councils and encourage them to use their influence on their authorities. I think the way forward for this is the councils at the bottom uniting together and putting forward a common front.”


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Jones Arfon
Jones Arfon
6 hours ago

Higher funding goes to the councils with the highest levels of deprivation- Wow, what a novel idea eh!

How does Flintshire want the funding formula to work then?

I take it that the WLGA are fully involved with Welsh Government on agreeing the make up of the funding formula.

If they haven’t got enough money then how are Flintshire bringing their culture and leisure services back in house? You shouldn’t seek to fix what’s not broken.

Mab Meirion
Mab Meirion
6 hours ago

If you give a child cuboids for toys as adults they produce buildings like this one…

I had a book on the interior of the Lodges of North Wales years ago, someone should commend to glossy paper the Civic Hives of Cymru…

Mab Meirion
Mab Meirion
6 minutes ago
Reply to  Mab Meirion

The earliest town hall still standing is Llantwit Major, 1490 and Cardiff the tallest at 194 feet with sixty odd more to be judged one day…it won’t be a beauty contest…some horrors for sure…

Ian Papworth
Ian Papworth
4 hours ago

Flintshire have tried making representations and have been ignored. FCC should be exploring what legal steps it can take. Reserves should be part of the formula. The only other step is for Flintshire Labour to leave Welsh labour as I fear we are being taken for granted.

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