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A round-up of the questions without notice to the Finance Minister & Trefnydd, Rebecca Evans (Lab, Gower).
Uncertainty over council budgets
Rhun ap Iorwerth MS (Plaid, Ynys Môn) raised the issue of uncertainty over next year’s budget, particularly for local councils. They face losing income for several months to come due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
What would be the principles behind the setting of local government budgets for next year and would the Minister consider going further and set a three-year budget cycle for local authorities?
The Minister dodged the three-year budget cycle question, but said local government would be high up the queue for additional money in next year’s Welsh budget – the draft version of which is set to be published by the end of the year.
“I’ve already had a series of bilaterals with my colleagues and just recently one with my colleague, the Minister for Local Government and Housing, who was very keen to press the case for support for local authorities. And in terms of the Government’s overall strategic approach, we’ve agreed again this year that health will remain a priority – our priority, unsurprisingly, given the situation we’re in, but also, again, we will want to give local authorities the best possible settlement for the next financial year.”
– Finance Minister & Trefnydd, Rebecca Evans
In total, around £410million of additional funding has been made available to councils or council-run services to support them through the pandemic or make up for lost income.
Businesses should make sure their council contact details are up to date to receive Welsh Gov. lockdown payments
Shadow Finance Minister, Nick Ramsay MS (Con, Monmouth), asked about the costings of the recently-announced firebreak lockdown. One of the issues that’s emerged since the announcement was an argument over whether UK Government job retention funding would be brought forward for Wales.
“It now appears Welsh Government officials knew a firebreak was coming on Wednesday of last week, yet the Welsh Government only wrote to the UK Chancellor on Friday. By that time, it was already clear the job support scheme could not be brought forward in Wales earlier than was planned. How are you now ensuring adequate finance is in place to plug any gaps so Welsh businesses don’t end up having to plug wage gaps themselves or….end up making workers redundant?”
– Shadow Finance Minister, Nick Ramsay MS
The Minsiter thought it was a “shame” the UK Government didn’t respond to their request regarding job support given that the Welsh Government offered to pay (the argument seems to be more about access to HMRC systems than money).
Some of the Welsh Government’s lockdown support payments to businesses will be automatic and managed through local authorities. She asked businesses to make sure their details are up to date.
