Behind the scenes lobbying going on to get more money into Powys from the Welsh Government
What is being done to try and secure a better Welsh Government funding settlements for Powys County Council, a senior councillor has asked
Councillors took a look at draft budget proposals for Social Services in 2026/2027 at a meeting of the council’s Health and Care scrutiny committee on Wednesday, January 28,
Next year’s Social Services in Powys will potentially receive £146 million out of a total council budget of £390.5 million which comes from Welsh Government funding and income from Council Tax.
This is an 11.2 per cent increase on this year.
Further breakdown shows that Adult Services will receive an uplift of 8.2 per cent, taking their departmental budget up from £103.974 million this year to £112.458 million.
While Children Services is set to go up from this year’s allocation of £32.597 million to £33.580 million.
The budget papers show that Adult Services are expecting financial pressures next year to the tune of £8.563 million which are due to a number of factors including contract provider uplifts, the real living wage increases as well as the risk of Welsh Government grant funding not materialising.
Children’s Services are predicting £1.561 million worth of pressures which is mainly due to not knowing how many new cases of youngsters needing care will emerge during 2026/2027.
Committee Chairwoman Cllr Amanda Jenner (Conservative – Trewern and Trelystan) said: “It would be interesting to hear about the political work that is going on and how you are trying to fight for more money for Powys.”
“Has the Welsh Government justified their settlement?
Cllr Ange Williams (Knighton and Beguildy), joint leader of the Powys Independents group, asked whether the Welsh Government really understands the financial pressure Powys and other local authorities are under to deliver legal obligations in areas such as Social Services.
Cllr Williams said “I’d like to see what they think our budgetary pressures are.
“They don’t seem to look into how we’re going to pay for it.”
She believed that local authority chiefs were being “too nice and polite” in discussions with Welsh Government official on budgets.
Council Leader Cllr Jake Berriman (Liberal Democrat – Llandrindod North) said: “We were actually reasonably pleased with the settlement that was achieved.
“I was doing a lot of work behind the scenes to try and find somebody that would come forward and get an improved offer for local government and in particular around social care.
“With my WLGA (Welsh Local Government Association) hat on, we are constantly lobbying to have full funding in this area.
“Because if we funded this properly from a governmental level it would mean less pressure on all the other services.”
He added that there was a “huge amount of collaboration” from councils all across Wales and the political spectrum on these issues.
“We’re working really hard to get all of the resources we possibly can,” stressed Cllr Berriman.
Director of Corporate Services and s151 officer Jane Thomas added that the chief finance officers (s151) from all across Wales “routinely” send a message to the Welsh Government setting out all the funding issues councils have got.
Ms Thomas said: “We are quite clear in setting out challenges.
“Settlements are not helping us meet those and very often that is based on the legislative requirement put upon us.”
This year’s Welsh Government budget settlement will see Powys receive an uplift of 4.2 per cent which takes its funding up to £267.568 million up from £256.751 million and saw it ranked 14 of the 22 councils.
Settlements ranged from 4.1 per cent to 6.1 per cent with Newport, Swansea and Blaenau Gwent council’s receiving the biggest percentage increases.
While Carmarthen, Ceredigion and Gwynedd councils came bottom of the pile.
