Grants propping up Powys Council budget

By Elgan Hearn, Local Democracy Reporter

Councillors are concerned that Powys County Council may be overly reliant on grant funding to balance the budget.

At a meeting of the council’s Finance Panel, councillors went through the final position of the 2025/2026 budget with a fine-tooth comb.

In 2025/2026, the council’s budget was £367.055 million, and finance chiefs said that the authority spent £365.833 million.

This means that the council landed its budget with a £1.222 million surplus.

Finance Panel Chair, Cllr Aled Davies, said: “It’s good to see a surplus; however, there is significant variation in the services. Are you worried about the reliance on one-off funding at the end of the financial year to bring us into balance?”

During the last quarter of 2025/2026, the council had been awarded grant funding worth £3.863 million, with £2.860 million of this being a Regional Integrated Fund (RIF) grant for Social Services.

The RIF funding is the third year of a five-year Welsh Government programme to help integrate health and care services.

Cllr Davies added that his “wish” is that the government allocated the funding up front in the annual budget settlement rather than in the form of grants.

“Grants are an inefficient way of transferring funding to local authorities,” said Cllr Davies.

Cllr David Thomas (Labour – Tawe Uchaf) replied: “I’m not overly concerned; it would not be correct to rely on grants, but if they materialise, they are very welcome.

“Heads of service and finance managers look through the budget during the year and are not presuming they will get a heavy grant at the end of the year.”

However, he did say that if grants didn’t come in, the council might need to dip into its reserves to balance the budget.

Cllr Davies asked whether Social Services chiefs were aware that a RIF grant was coming their way.

Head of Children’s Social Services, Sharon Powell, said: “Yes, we were aware of that coming in advance.”

Head of Adult Social Services, Sharon Frewin, added: “The RIF money is due to come to an end after next year and we’ve sort of been assured there will be a replacement, but we don’t know what it will look like and how much it will be.”

She added that a “lot of work” had been conducted over the last eight months to review the programmes that are funded by RIF, understanding those that are a priority so that they can be financed within a future base budget.

Adult Social Services Portfolio Holder, Cllr Pete Roberts (Liberal Democrat), said that he had been asking officers to work on the premise of “zero” RIF funding from April 2027.

Cllr Adam Kennerley (Liberal Democrat – Newtown North) said: “The last-minute grants look like a vulnerability.”

He believed the council is “more reliant” on the grant than what the figure indicates and he wondered “what if” they don’t come.

Cllr Kennerley said: “We effectively have to look to reserves and that reveals a fragility.”

The report will go before the Liberal Democrat/Labour cabinet at a meeting later this month.