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Powys County Times
04-07-2025
- Business
- Powys County Times
Powys Council budget chief 'needs to see into Trump's mind'
A SENIOR Powys councillor says he would need to see inside Donald Trump's mind to properly plan Powys Council's long-term finances. At a joint meeting of all Powys County Council's scrutiny committees on Thursday, July 3, councillors went through the strategic risk register in some depth. One of the risks around the council's budget relates to an inability to deliver financial sustainability, which comes under director of corporate services Jane Thomas. Chairman of the learning and skills scrutiny committee, Cllr Gwynfor Thomas (Conservative) who chaired the joint committee meeting asked how sensitive the council's medium term financial plan (budget) is to external factors. During the last five years council finances have been hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, the cost-of-living crisis causing high interest rates and energy prices, and now the President Trump's economic policies such as tariffs and their impact on the UK economy. Portfolio holder for Finance, Cllr David Thomas (Labour) said: 'We have economic advisers and can build forecasts into projections for inflation, interest rates etc. 'But the situation is so volatile. 'I wish I could get into Donald Trump's mind, perhaps we might be able to get some more accurate predictions and projections.' Opposition councillors asked for clarity last month over the figure for savings and cuts the council needs to make over the next five years. Financial reports this year have thrown up figures that vary by over £20 million. Cllr Thomas said: 'Unfortunately things do change very quickly, and this is why you see some of the final figures in the medium-term financial plan changing on a regular basis.' Jane Thomas added: 'External factors have such a significant impact on the funding we receive as well as the costs for the authority.' 'We do work collaboratively across Wales with the WLGA (Welsh Local Government Association) with Wales Fiscal Analysis supporting them.' She added that this group monitors all the economic and fiscal decisions made by the UK Government so that they 'understand the impact' across all local authorities in Wales. Ms Thomas said: 'We do and awful lot in that sphere to make sure we are heard, and it's considered.'
Powys County Times
14-06-2025
- Business
- Powys County Times
Powys County Council's budget black hole value queried
HOW big a funding gap Powys County Council is expected to fill with cuts and savings over the next four to fove years varies by over £20 million – a councllor has pointed out. Calls were made to clarify the figures that the council is using to explain their predicted financial black hole during a joint meeting of all of the council's scrutiny committee's on Wednesday, June 11. At the meeting, councillors looked at the council's draft Corporate and Equalities Strategic Plan which has been updated from the version that was agreed earlier this year. The plan sets out the council's well-being objectives, and what action they need to take to deliver them up the next local election in 2027. All the departmental strategies, action and business plans are linked by a 'golden thread' into this document which encompasses them all. This plan is supposed to keep track of how the council is performing against the three objectives of the Liberal Democrat/Labour cabinet's Stronger Fairer, Greener agenda. Cllr Gareth E Jones (Powys Independents) highlighted the problem and said: 'If you go to the leader and deputy leader's introduction (to the document) there's a statement there that the funding gap is £60 million but on the MTFS (Medium Term Financial Strategy) the funding gap on those assumptions is shown as £39.1 million. 'I think they two figures need to be the same for consistency.' Director of corporate services and section 151 officer, Jane Thomas replied: 'We can and will amend that to the latest figure, it should reflect what was approved in council back in February. 'We will see the gap change quite often now as we go through the years and we develop our five year plans.' Making sure that the figure changes forms one of the recommendations made by councillors at the meeting – which will be added to the report when it goes before cabinet at a later date. Another recommendation by councillors is that members of the Liberal Democrat/Labour cabinet should attend the joint scrutiny meeting to explain and if needed defend the council's performance. Cllr Jones said: 'It was very disappointing about the number of cabinet members that were present today, we should have a recommendation at future meetings that they have more presence. 'This is the council's performance document ,officers develop the plan but cabinet member sign it off.' Learning and skills committee chairman who chaired the joint-scrutiny meeting, Cllr Gwynfor Thomas (Conservative) said: 'I'm happy to do that as they (cabinet members) are the line holders and are responsible for the different measures and things.'
