The Welsh Assembly Government has given councils in Wales an early Christmas present. Yesterday's Revenue Support Grant settlement provides local authorities with an average reduction in grant of 1.4%, ranging from a rise of 0.1% in Cardiff to a 'floor' of -1.7% for most authorities. While it is important to note that the Welsh RSG includes schools' funding (removed in England in 2006-07), the relative generosity of the settlement will be viewed with envy in England.
Wales has followed a very different path to England. The Welsh Assembly Government has not decided to ring-fence the NHS, which means that councils are not faced with disproportionate cuts to their grants. Indeed, looking ahead, local government in Wales can expect a modest rise in cash grants in the coming years.
Although no one is supposed to be in favour of the 'salami slice' approach to cutting public expenditure, there is little doubt that sharing out the pain will produce a less problematic set of impacts than concentrating cuts on a small number of local services. The Welsh government will have saved itself a great deal of misery by adopting the approach it has.
In England, it is inevitable councils will face cash reductions significantly bigger than those now felt even by the least-well treated authorities in Wales. Indeed, it will be interesting to see if the most generously funded English council has a grant change as kindly as the 'floor' -1.7% grant reduction faced by authorities such as Conwy, Pembrokeshire and Blaenau Gwent.
Perhaps the Welsh Assembly Government should put aside some of next year's cash to reinforce Offa's Dyke - just in case the English feel the need start a mass migration across the border.
Tony Travers is the director of the Greater London Group at the London School of Economics
