Councils call on WAG to review ‘One Wales’ priorities
22 April 2009
Wales’ council leaders are urging the Welsh Assembly Government to lead Wales’ Budget response by reviewing the 200 plus commitments contained in ‘One Wales’ and sharing the burden of the Budget reductions across the public sector to ensure that essential front-line services are protected.
The detailed settlement for Wales has yet to be announced, but the Budget Report indicates a cut of £400 million in 2010-11, with worse to come in 2011-12 and beyond.
Cllr John Davies (Pembrokeshire), WLGA Leader said:
“Today, the Chancellor said that front line services in England will be protected with the cuts being heralded as efficiency savings based on evidence from long term research. However, similar research has not been done in Wales. Therefore, can the Welsh Assembly Government say with the same confidence that it can deliver the same commitment to protect services here in Wales?
Despite poor budget settlements in recent years, local government has consistently exceeded the annual £45 million efficiency target set for it by the Assembly Government and continues to do so. We recognise that there is scope for further efficiencies, as there is across all parts of the public sector, but the Assembly Government should not to assume that further efficiencies will be easy to achieve or deliverable in the short term.
Given that minimising the impact of the current economic downturn is already becoming exceptionally difficult for councils in the wake of low financial settlements in recent years, it begs the question of how long councils can protect local services? Tough choices will be faced by councils, the NHS and the Assembly Government itself in terms of its ‘One Wales’ commitments, many of which have become unrealistic and unaffordable in the current climate. We call on the Welsh Assembly Government to meet urgently with all of its public sector partners to discuss the way forward.”
Cllr Rodney Berman (Cardiff), WLGA Finance Spokesperson said:
“Councils are committed to providing their local communities with better public services and providing value for money. Indeed, local government has embraced the efficiency agenda more than any other sector, with councils achieving millions of pounds of recurrent efficiency savings in recent years. However, councils are already squeezing everything they can out of the system, making savings wherever they can and being forced into taking some very difficult and unpopular decisions to make ends meet, including job losses.
We urge the Assembly Government to ensure that adequate funding is made available to local government to protect essential frontline services. There has already been a significant downsizing of local government services and staff levels over the last year and with budgets like these, we can unfortunately expect an even greater downsizing over the next few years.
However, we do welcome the funding announced for education and training, home building and energy efficiency measures, which will bring an additional £60 million to Wales. We urge the Welsh Assembly Government to use that funding to invest in the same priorities here.”
Ends