Wales gets extra £25m from English council funding boost

Wales is to get an extra £25m for public services off the back of a boost for English councils aimed at tackling a cash crisis.

An additional £500m announced for social care has triggered more funding for the Welsh government.

Plaid Cymru wants the cash to be given to rural councils seeing the smallest increase in their budgets next year.

The Welsh government said it did not get notice of the funding announcement and was awaiting clarity on the detail.

If ministers choose to put the extra £25m into local government, the money would be a tiny addition to the overall £5.5bn budget.

Welsh public services get extra money when the UK government boosts funding to services in England, like health and councils, which are run from Cardiff in Wales.

Ministers are not required to spend the money in the same way as the UK government, and can put it into other services.

In the local government settlement, announced last year, Newport council saw the largest budget increase at 4.7%, while Conwy and Gwynedd got the worst at 2%.

The UK government said that it was likely that around £25m extra would be provided to the Welsh government, with final amounts to be confirmed later.

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The Welsh government said it was not told about the funding announcement and was waiting for the details to become clearer.

"We have protected local government funding in our draft budget, despite the financial challenges we have faced," it added.

Plaid Cymru's finance spokesman Peredur Owen Griffiths said the party "will be pressing for urgent clarity regarding the amount of consequentials for Wales from this new funding".

"Additional funds could be used to raise the funding floor from 2% to at least 3%, which would significantly benefit many local authorities, particularly those in rural areas. This must be done swiftly before councils approve their budgets at the end of February."

Anthony Hunt, finance spokesperson for the Welsh Local Government Association and a Labour council leader in Torfaen, said: "It is vital now that the consequential funding allocation arising as a result of today's announcement is passported in full to Welsh councils to help our hard-hit social care services and to fund our schools."

Welsh Conservative shadow minister for local government Sam Rowlands said: "It's imperative that every penny of this funding makes its way to into council budgets and that none of it is pinched by Labour and Plaid Cymru to fund their vanity projects."

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