Working with the Welsh Assembly Government

The Welsh Assembly Government has a wide-range of powers which impact on local government and the services it delivers. It is responsible for a range of local government policy areas, such as social services, education, the environment, planning, transport, economic development. Critically, it is responsible for distributing Wales’ £14.5 billion budget, of which nearly £8 billion is spent on local government services. The Assembly Government sets the national agenda for Wales, and whilst setting strategies and key targets, it gives significant flexibility to local government to work within these national parameters.This recognition of the local democratic legitimacy of local government is further reflected in the fact that the vast majority of the funding passed from the Assembly Government to local councils is not ringfenced, giving Councils the flexibility to spend the money on local needs and priorities.

Councils have direct links with the Welsh Assembly Government, via elected members and officers, however, much of the national representation and negotiation over policy development and funding is undertaken through the WLGA. This cross-party organisation, representing all councils, elects senior councillors from across Wales as local government spokespersons to meet regularly with Ministers and other AMs, and civil servants, to ensure local government’s concerns and views inform national decision-making. There is also a statutory Partnership Council between the Welsh Assembly Government and local government which promotes joint working, co-operation and informed policy development.

One Wales is the programme for government for the current Assembly term agreed between the Labour and Plaid Cymru groups in the National Assembly. A Shared Responsibility is the latest local government policy statement from the Welsh Assembly Government which reaffirms the central role of local government in public services reform given its key community leadership and service delivery roles. The statement outlines the local government contribution to the Making the Connections: Delivering Beyond Boundaries programme and its citizen-focus and collaborative model of service design and delivery.

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