Call for Welsh government statement on council reserves
0The Welsh shadow minister for communities and local government, Mark Isherwood, has called on the Welsh government to make a statement on local authority reserves.
All the North Wales councils, with the exception of Denbighshire, will receive a cut in in their grant, with the largest reductions for Flintshire, Conwy, Anglesey, Monmouthshire, and Powys.
Isherwood highlighted the case of Anglesey County Council, whose chief financial officer warned that the council could face the same fate as Northamptonshire if it did not add to its reserves.
He pointed out that the councils facing the largest cuts in the settlement of minus 0.3% were Flintshire with reserves of £49.4m, Anglesey with £24.1m, and Conway with £22.7m.
This is in contrast to much better reserved councils which received increases in their grants, such as Cardiff with total usable reserves of £109.6m and a 0.9% rise.
Isherwood said: “Given these points, I hope we can have a Welsh government statement with minimum blame laying and maximum focus on how we’ve got into this position within the available cake in Wales, and how on earth we’re going to get out of it so that councils like Anglesey don’t have to consider going the same way as Northamptonshire.”
