Frank Little

Councillor for East Central ward on Coedffranc Town Council Learn more

Finance

by franklittle on 18 November, 2009

Yesterday, Council heard a presentation from Steve Thomas of the Welsh Local Government Association on the probable Welsh Assembly Government settlement for 2009/10 and the prospects for future years. He described it as a horror story, but also said that the current settlement was “as good as it gets”. The WLGA press release gives the gist of his message.

Whatever shade of government appears in Westminster next year, there are bound to be cuts. It seems to me that, in this respect, the split between socialists, conservatives, liberal democrats and nationalists is less important than that between Westminster, Cardiff and local authorities. It has been shown that local government is more efficient than central government, yet it is virtually certain that town hall will be called upon to make greater cuts than Whitehall. I like to think that Liberal Democrats, because of our important local government base and our emphasis on governing at the lowest level necessary, would be more discriminating when in power, but there is the Westminster group-think of the civil service to overcome.

The silver lining locally is that Neath Port Talbot is among the best-prepared of local authorities to cope with the restrictions. The former council leader and former chief executive, together with director of finance Derek Davies, anticipated the fall in WAG settlements and planned accordingly. Even so, their figures for 2011/12 & later may be optimistic, and the effect of the Icelandic bank failure has yet to be worked out.

Update: the record of the draft budget debate in the Welsh Assembly is online. Go to http://www.assemblywales.org/bus-home/bus-chamber/bus-chamber-third-assembly-rop.htm?act=dis&id=152972&ds=11/2009 and search for (F3 key or ctrl/f) “The Draft Budget”.

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