The Welsh local government secretary has announced over £4bn of funding for councils in a bid to provide ‘stability’.
Mark Drakeford AM announced on Wednesday (19 October) that local government would receive £4.107bn worth of funding for 2017-18.
‘The aim of this provisional settlement is to give local authorities the stability to manage the difficult decisions that lie ahead,’ he said.
The Senedd in Cardiff
‘We know that councils are delivering their services against a backdrop of austerity and this settlement provides a platform from which to plan for harder choices which will lie ahead.’
Local government will see an increase in its funding for 2017-18 of £3.8m compared to 2016-17.
The settlement includes £25m to support the delivery of social services, as well as £1m for school transport and £3m for a pilot scheme to support town centre car parking.
Mr Drakeford said the package included additional funding to implement a minus 0.5% funding floor which ‘limits the impact on councils that would have seen the biggest reductions in their core funding.’
‘As a result, this is the first cash increase in the local government settlement since 2013-14,’ he said.
‘Under the funding floor, no council will have to manage on less than 99.5% of the cash provided to them last year.
‘When added to the other sources of income available to them, many councils will be able to increase their spending next year.’
He also noted capital funding for 2017-18 amounts to £442m, with general capital funding for the same period unchanged at £143m.
As well as the announcement about local government funding, Mr Drakeford also published some information about other Welsh government grant schemes planned for 2017-18.
This identifies a further £650m of funding for key priorities and is designed to assist local authorities in preparing their budgets for next year.
The funding for Council Tax Reduction Schemes will be maintained at £244m.
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