Swansea Council‘s money troubles were put to the Welsh Government on Wednesday, with a plea to send councils the additional learning needs cash that was lost when the Senedd voted down the supplementary budget in July.
Reform UK’s Francesca O’Brien, the Gŵyr Abertawe MS and her party’s shadow minister for local government, told the education minister the council was £13.7m over budget three months into the year, had imposed a vacancy freeze and “severe spending restrictions”, and that its finance director had warned reserves were “already below the absolute minimum of acceptability”.
She said the council’s school buildings programme was “£73 million more than it can afford, so fewer schools will get the investments that they were promised”.
“Your supplementary budget kept that money in Cardiff Bay”
Ms O’Brien said Wales had received extra funding for additional learning needs on the back of spending in England, “but your supplementary budget kept that money in Cardiff Bay, rather than sending it to councils and schools that actually support these children”.
She asked Anna Brychan to commit to passing it directly to councils “so councils aren’t forced to drain their reserves to fill that spending gap”.
Ms Brychan said she had met the Welsh Local Government Association on Tuesday and agreed ALN was “a pressing priority for local authorities and for our schools”, which was why the government had made the funding commitments in the supplementary budget.
“She will be aware that that was not successful,” the minister said, “but that is continuing work and there remain opportunities for that funding to be sent to local authorities and schools to address some of these issues.”
£10m in reserves against a £14m floor, and full council on 1 October
Cabinet signed off the spending restrictions last week after Ben Smith, the council’s finance director, told members general reserves stood at £10m against the £14m he had certified as the minimum safe level in March, with a directorate overspend “of over £13m”.
Council leader Rob Stewart said a failed Welsh Government budget would hit councils “akin to a Trump-style shutdown”, since ministers can spend only three-quarters of the previous year’s total until one passes.
Mr Stewart told cabinet the pressures were not a surprise: demand in adult services was up 15% on average, and the cost of supporting people who are homeless or seeking housing had risen. “They’re not pressures that are just hitting Swansea. They’re hitting all councils across Wales,” he said.
He compared the position to “the austerity budgets of the Tory governments in the early 2010s”, when the council cut more than £70m, and said Pembrokeshire had already brought in similar controls.
Mr Smith’s review of the council’s earmarked reserves goes to full council on 1 October.
The Senedd heard on Wednesday that Swansea is not alone on schools either. Andrew RT Davies told Ms Brychan that “many schools” in Bridgend and the Vale of Glamorgan were in deficit, and she replied: “I know that there are issues around funding in education and in our schools.”
Ms Brychan told him that the last budget negotiations had found an extra £112.8m for local government, taking core funding to £6.56bn, a 4.5% rise, and that she was “an advocate for support” for education “in all aspects”.
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