Monmouthshire County Council’s funding troubles welcomed a respite last week when Welsh Government announced an extra £141.5m for Welsh councils.

Finance secretary Mark Drakeford revealed that Welsh Government’s final budget included the cash boost, after an earlier draft settlement pointed to more cuts, meaning Monmouthshire’s funding cut will be halved.

October’s figures showed MCC, along with five other Welsh councils, would have to deal with a one per cent fall—almost £1m—this year. The extra cash, announced last week, will half that figure.

In a statement Mr Drakeford said, “The cabinet recognised the real pressures local authorities are facing and were resolute in our commitment to do all we could to protect them from the worst effects of the UK Government’s damaging policy of austerity as we entered this ninth year of austerity.

“When the National Assembly passed the final budget 2018-19 in January 2018, local authorities were facing a one per cent reduction in the revenue support grant for 2019-20 – this was equivalent to a cash reduction of £43 million.

“We worked hard during the preparation of the draft budget 2019-20 to reduce that cut in funding in the RSG to less than £15 million.

“We also put in place a floor to ensure no authority would face a reduction in funding of more than one per cent.

“This was still a challenging settlement overall for local authorities and we committed to local government being a key priority for any additional funding following the UK autumn budget last month.

“Local government has been at the heart of our considerations as we have worked through the detail of the UK autumn budget on our spending proposals over the last few weeks.”

Leader of the Council Peter Fox said, "Any additional money is good news but let’s keep this in context. Monmouthshire will not only continue to be the worst funded county in the whole of Wales by a distance, but we will still see a year on year cut in the money we receive for service provision – that’s a double whammy, the lowest has just got lower.

“Unavoidable pressures around our schools and care services alone are £5 million plus for next year so this funding increase is right on the margins of true need. Let’s hope the next First Minister gets a grip on this government and starts to spend money where it is needed, and that is locally.”