Reacting to the Audit Wales report showing significant risks to local authority finances throughout Wales, Peredur Owen Griffiths MS said urgent action is needed by Labour Government in Wales and London.

The Plaid Cymru spokesperson for Local Government said comments by Auditor General Adrian Crompton that “we cannot assume that local government will remain financially sustainable” and that councils “do not have longer term plans in place” to address funding gaps, should set alarm bells ringing in the Labour ranks.

Peredur said: “I have spoken to many people in local government over the course of the last couple of years and it is clear that the financial position is becoming more and more precarious.

“Tory austerity over a decade-and-a-half has cut many council departments to the bone. Whatever the Labour First Minister in Wales may say to the contrary, the Labour Government in Westminster have hitched their wagon to this discredited and punitive political ideology.

“Public services are crying out for a massive injection of cash and it is imperative that the Labour Government in Westminster turns on the flow of cash to local government urgently.

“This report really should set alarm bells ringing in the government departments in both Westminster and Cathays Park.

“To ignore it would jeopardise the financial viability of many of our local authorities, as well as hit the most vulnerable in society the hardest.”

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