Welsh Assembly Minister for Finance, Jane Hutt, has admitted that the Welsh Assembly Government has been receiving extra money from the UK government ‘in cash terms’ since 2008.
The Minister was responding to a letter from local MP David Davies who is questioning why the Assembly Government are imposing a 4.4 % cut in the funding given to Monmouthshire Council.
This significant reduction has led to serious threats of closure for Usk and Gilwern libraries and will adversely affect many other public services that the people of Monmouthshire County Council rely on.
In response Mr Davies said today:
“The UK Government gives grant to the Welsh Assembly Government and the Assembly Government uses it to fund councils in Wales. If the government had reduced the amount of cash going to Wales you would expect there to be cuts to councils, but his letter proves beyond doubt that far from reducing the money the UK Government have actually been increasing it. The cuts to Council budgets are not government cuts they are Welsh Assembly cuts.
The impact in Monmouthshire is particularly unfair. Here we already receive less money per head than any other local authority in Wales yet the Assembly are going to cut our funding by a further 4.4%.
The Minister in her letter argues that the impact of inflation means that there has been an overall reduction in funding. This is possible but it doesn’t come near to explaining a cut that has led to a £9 Million budget shortfall for Monmouthshire County Council.
She goes on to say that we should not compare the increase in funding the Assembly has been getting from the UK government with the cuts the Assembly have been making to Councils. I say ‘why not?’ In effect the Assembly have been given generous funding which they are retaining for their own reasons in a move which will lead to cuts in services and increases in Council taxes.
I have published my letter and the Minister’s response on my website and will continue to demand an explanation for where the money they have received has gone.”