Increased funding for local services from the UK and Welsh Governments.

Dear Each,

 

Thank you for your email regarding increased funding for local services from the UK and Welsh Governments.

 

To combat the Covid-19 pandemic, the UK Government has provided £5 billion to the Welsh Government to support services in Wales this year. This is on top of increasing the Welsh Government’s funding for 2020/21 by £1.4 billion following increased in spending on public services in England.

 

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak MP, has confirmed that the Welsh Government will have at least an additional £1.3 billion to spend in next year’s budget.

 

Sadly, the Welsh Government has yet to spend nearly £1.8 billion of funding from this year to support local services at this difficult time.

 

As well supporting the Welsh Government with the finances needed to tackle the pandemic, the UK Government has supported more than 400,000 jobs in Wales through the Coronavirus Jobs Retention Scheme and the Self-Employed Income Support Scheme.

 

Throughout the pandemic, my Welsh Conservative colleagues and I have been calling on the Welsh Government to ensure that they deliver the funding needed to support public services and local councils to meet the pressures of the virus.

 

Specifically, as the Welsh Conservative Shadow Minister for Local Government, Housing and Communities, I have consistently called for the Welsh Government to allocate any additional funding they have received  following increased funding to Local Government in England, directly to local councils in Wales. I will also continue to press the Welsh Government to deliver fair funding to Councils now and in the future.

 

Kind regards

 

Mark