Flintshire Council to get some additional funding as the Welsh Government finalises its budget

Finance Secretary Mark Drakeford has given local authorities £60m in additional funding over the next two years as the Welsh Government prepares to publish its finalised budget.

The Welsh NHS will also get additional funding, it will receive an extra £50m in 2018-19 and £50m in 2019-20 to support the ongoing transformation of services, primary care and the Integrated Care Fund.

The funding boost comes a result of increased public spending in England and ‘funding consequentials’ known as the ‘Barnett formula‘

The devil of course will be in the detail but if the additional £60m is split evenly (which is highly unlikely) between the 22 local authorities in Wales that would mean Flintshire will receive an extra £2.7m over the next two years.

Flintshire County Council called on the Welsh Government to increase funding as it tries to find a way of plugging a near £14m hole in the budget.

The provisional local government settlement announced in October saw Flintshire funding slashed by a further by £1.6m to £187.8m, the additional funds announced today will go part way to bridge that gap.

Further details will be published in the final local government settlement which will be released this afternoon.

Finance Secretary Mark Drakeford said:

“The final Budget marks a significant milestone in Wales’ devolution journey as, for the first time, Wales becomes responsible for raising a proportion of its own revenue from 2 new devolved taxes to spend on public services.

“I am pleased to be able to provide additional funding for public services – areas we know need extra support. This funding will help to ease some of the pressures on frontline public services, which have been struggling to cope as a result of the successive cuts to our budget, which we have experienced since 2010-11 thanks to the UK government’s programme of austerity.”

Shadow Finance Secretary, Nick Ramsay said:

 “The Chancellor’s budget has delivered a substantial financial boost for Wales and we are pleased to see Mark Drakeford has listened to our calls to invest the additional cash into key frontline services such as the NHS and local government.

As ever, the devil is always in the detail and we will examine closely where this funding is allocated, particularly after nearly two decades of budgets from the Labour Party which have failed to deliver increased prosperity and improved public services in Wales.

It is imperative this investment is aimed at improving outcomes for people across Wales and not to cover up the financial mismanagement of key public services by Carwyn Jones and his Welsh Government.”