Budget Comment

Written by Jenny Randerson AM and published in Cardiff Post on Thu 15th Nov 2007

The Welsh Assembly Government recently unveiled its budget plans for the next three years and they make dismal reading, especially for local councils.

The Welsh Assembly Government plans to work within the total funding allocated to it by the UK government and next year the situation is particularly tight. So it is depressing to see that the Labour/Plaid coalition Government has found the money for a number of more gimmicky ideas - such as a pilot project to provide free laptops to all schoolchildren while not managing to find the money even to cover inflationary pay rises for local government workers such as teachers and refuse-collection staff.

Local Councils get 80% of their funding from the Welsh Assembly Government, the other 20% they raise from us, the Council tax payers. The Welsh Local Government Association which represents all 22 councils across Wales came to the Finance Committee of the Assembly this week to give us their view of the budget, I have been an AM for over 8 years but I have never seen such a set of damning comments from any organisation in Wales. This is particularly surprising as the WLGA represents councils of all political colours including the ruling Plaid and Labour parties.

The inevitable result wherever you live is that Council Tax will rise next year by considerably more than the rate of inflation. That is on top of the big increases many saw a couple of years ago when homes were rebanded. The Labour-Plaid coalition promised help for pensioners to reduce Council Tax bills - but the bad news is that this will not happen next year. So when the Council Tax bill drops on your may next spring remember the increase can be fairly and squarely laid at the door of the Welsh Assembly Government.

As well as Council Tax rises cutbacks in some services seem to be inevitable as well, Throughout Wales Social Services Departments are already spending more on services for elderly people than the Welsh Assembly Government allocates to them. Here in Wales we spend over £600 less per year on each child's education than they do in England. That is bound to put Welsh children as a disadvantage. How can we ever catch up with the rest of the UK when we continue to under fund the basic services such as this?