Wrexham Council Leader discusses budget report for 2024/25

Leader Live

2 days ago

The report is set to be presented to the Executive Board next Tuesday (June 10), outlining the council's financial performance for Q4 of 2024/25.
The final position represents a total net deficit compared to the budget of £1.7m
It is recommended that the £1.7m is taken from the Budget Mitigation reserve as intended, to support the revenue budget in 2024/25. The council's general balances remain unchanged at £8.4m.
Ahead of the meeting, Leader of the Council Mark Pritchard stated his concerns over potential National Insurance (NI) payments that local authorities are expected to pick up.
The UK Government are expected to fund 75 per cent, with Welsh Government adding a top up of £36m, but that still leaves a gap of 15% that the council would need to cover.
Mark Pritchard. (Image: Wrexham Council) The Leader of the Council said: "I'm really pleased with where we are at this moment in time with regards to the outturn.
"There's been a lot of work to get us to this point and it hasn't been easy. One thing I must say is we can't rest on our laurels and we need to bring a budget in and we will continue to do in these extremely difficult times.
"I do have concerns in the future over funding as there is an election coming and we don't know where we are on the NI side.
"We feel we've been done to without consultation, this wasn't in any bodies manifesto, they've announced this, gone in another direction. They promised us they'd protect us between Wales and Westminster and they'd protect public services, if this is protecting public services – we've got a rough ride ahead of us.
"It's unfair from a government that they are opposing NI on us, an example is the social care budget is £100m, £70m of that is paid to external providers, they will all have NI increases and they will all knock our door for it.
"It's just extra pressure that we could do without at this moment in time.
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"We're given a certain amount of money that we spend within the council and we make political decisions on where to spend it.
"The general public are more understanding now, but we have a certain amount of money, we have a legal and statutory duty to deliver services, is a requirement and the other services have to wait in line to see if there's cuts or spending.
"It's very, very difficult to bring in budget, echoed across the country, it's tough times."
The council spent over £107m on social care in 2024/25, which was £6.5m over what they had budgeted for the financial year.
The Leader of the council was quick to state that that level of spending is down to the current levels of demand for the service.
He said: "These aren't overspends in the statutory services in terms of adult and children social services, these are demand led pressures with members of the public coming through the door needing help.
"I believe that social care demand is going to increase, the demand is going to continue to come through the door. What I would say to anyone who challenges social care – what if it was your mother, what if it was your father, brother, sister who needed help in social care.
"What would you expect? I would expect first class service and I would expect councils to make sure social care is safe and the most vulnerable people in society are looked after."
When asked whether it's possible the council could become a statutory service only, Cllr Pritchard responded: 'Only time will tell, we are looking to remodel and change things, even if we do that the demand is still growing.
"The more demand in statutory services, if we don't have money from government, we'll have to put more money in to meet the demand and then we're outstripping non-statutory services.
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"For some reason the governments aren't giving the money we require. None of us want any local authorities in Wales to go bankrupt. We're not asking great demands, only asking for local authorities delivering statutory services and safeguarding.
"All we'll do is keep taking money from non statutory to put into statutory services. The frankness of it is in my opinion is the pressure is immense.
When questioned on whether he believes it will take a Section 114 (bankruptcy) notice from a local authority in Wales for the Welsh Government to understand the current pressures, Cllr Pritchard said: "Honestly, yes, I think that's what it will take and I hope that never happens I wouldn't want to see it happen to any authority in Wales, I wouldn't.
"I think if one goes, it will be a domino effect, let's hope that we never get there."