The main formal partnership between the Welsh Assembly Government and Local Government is undertaken through the Partnership Council.
One of the bodies that reports to the Partnership Council is the Consultative Forum on Finance (CFF) which is the main forum for the Assembly Government to consult with the WLGA (on behalf of local government) on all aspects of local government finance. It is currently chaired by the Minister for Social Justice and Local Government and its membership includes representatives of the Welsh Assembly Government and officials from the local government finance division. Since the Government of Wales Act there are no longer representatives of the National Assembly for Wales sitting on CFF. There is instead a Finance Committee which is one of NAfW’s scrutiny committees.
The WLGA has the following representatives sitting on the CFF:
- Cllr John Davies (WLGA Leader) (Pembrokeshire and Group Leader for the Independents)
- Cllr Rodney Berman (WLGA Finance Spokesperson) (Cardiff and Group Leader for the Liberal Democrats and other Political Group Leaders)
- Cllr Russell Roberts (Rhondda Cynon Taff – Labour)
- Cllr Peter Fox (Monmouthshire - Conservative)
- Cllr Dyfed Edwards (Gwynedd - Plaid)
- Steve Thomas (Chief Executive)
- Vanessa Phillips (Director of Resources)
- WLGA Finance Advisors
Police authorities and Fire Authorities are also represented.
The CFF has three officer led sub groups which deal with different asepcts of local government finance:
- The Expenditure Sub Group (ESG) which deals with the amount of funding local government receives;
- The Distribution Sub Group (DSG) which discusses how the Revenue Support Grant (RSG) is shared out between authorities;
- The Capital Finance and Investment Sub Group (CFIG) which concentrates on the capital investment needs of local government.
For more information contact: Mari Thomas