Will the Cabinet Secretary provide a breakdown of the real terms cuts to the budget allocated to promote local democracy and what assessment has been made in respect of the draft budget in terms of representation in future local elections?
By the end of the decade the Welsh budget will be 7% lower in real terms than in 2010-11, equivalent to £1.2bn less to spend on public services. Such a reduction has an unavoidable impact on spending decisions of the Welsh Government. Despite that adverse context a total of £698,000 has been allocated in the Draft Budget for “Building Local Democracy” for 2018/19. This is the same as during this financial year and there are no plans to vary this over the following two years. The majority of this (£572,000) is designated for the costs of the Local Democracy and Boundary Commission for Wales in conducting their work of keeping the boundaries and electoral arrangements in local government under review. The remainder is used to meet the costs of the Independent Remuneration Panel for Wales and to support other initiatives which may arise.
The costs of local elections are borne by local authorities themselves. There has recently been a consultation on a range of potential reforms connected to local elections and the costs associated with any of these will be considered when policies are taken forward.