The reorganisation of the Welsh Government funded Welsh public sector – Part 2

This article continues my consideration of the reorganisation of the Welsh Government funded Welsh public sector. 

Local Government mergers are again being considered and there is a political consensus that we need larger local authorities, although calling a reconstituted Dyfed a local Council does seem, to me at least, a little strange.

The current size of local authorities in Wales are shown below.

Rank	District	Population
1	Cardiff	361,500
2	Swansea	244,500
3	Rhondda Cynon Taf	238,300
4	Carmarthenshire	185,600
5	Caerphilly	180,500
6	Flintshire	154,400
7	Newport	149,100
8	Bridgend	143,200
9	Neath Port Talbot	141,600
10	Wrexham	136,700
11	Powys	132,200
12	Vale of Glamorgan	128,500
13	Pembrokeshire	124,000
14	Gwynedd	123,600
15	Conwy	116,500
16	Denbighshire	94,800
17	Monmouthshire	92,800
18	Torfaen	92,100
19	Ceredigion	74,100
20	Isle of Anglesey	69,700
21	Blaenau Gwent	69,600
22	Merthyr Tydfil	59,800

 

England and Scotland have several unitary authorities larger than Cardiff but Scotland has 5 smaller than Merthyr (Inverclyde, Clackmanshire, Western Isles, Orkney and Shetland) and England one (Rutland).

If larger authorities were more efficient and effective then two things would happen: council tax would be lower and performance would be better. The council tax should show that the larger authorities, and Powys which has been deemed not to need to be merged, charging the lowest amount. Using Welsh Government data on 2018/19 County and County Borough Council tax rates.

 

District	Band D Council Tax	Relative size
Pembrokeshire	994	13
Newport	1,057	7
Caerphilly	1,058	5
Wrexham	1093	10
Isle of Anglesey	1140	20
Cardiff	1155	1
Conwy	1168	15
Flintshire	1178	6
Vale of Glamorgan	1,187	12
Powys	1189	11
Carmarthenshire	1,197	4
Ceredigion	1226	19
Torfaen	1,242	18
Monmouthshire	1,242	17
Denbighshire	1248	16
Swansea	1269	2
Gwynedd	1301	14
Bridgend	1396	8
Rhondda Cynon	1,406	3
Neath Port Talbot	1,497	9
Merthyr Tydfil	1500	21
Blaenau Gwent	1571	22

 

Whilst the two smallest authorities are in the bottom two places regarding council tax, medium sized authorities appear to perform better than either large or small authorities when it comes to the cost of council tax to the resident.

Does council performance show that the larger authorities by population perform best? According to the Western Mail “ the quality of services delivered by local authorities in Wales is not determined by the size of the council.”

The Western Mail figures are based on 28 indicators across the range of local government, including education, social care, housing, environment and transport, planning and regulatory services, leisure and culture and corporate health.

With four points on offer for councils that performed in the top quartile of each indicator, a maximum score of 112 was possible. Depending on their performance, councils scored between one and four points in each indicator.

This uses figures published in 2015/16 and I will update these figures when I can access the 2016/17 figures.

Council	Score	Relative size
Vale of Glamorgan	86	12
Denbighshire	85	16
Carmarthenshire	79	4
Pembrokeshire	77	13
Rhondda Cynon Taf	77	3
Merthyr Tydfil	76	22
Wrexham	76	10
Neath Port Talbot	73	9
Gwynedd	72	14
Flintshire	71	6
Caerphilly	70	5
Conwy	68	15
Isle of Anglesey	68	29
Blaenau Gwent	67	21
Bridgend	67	8
Monmouthshire	66	17
Newport	66	7
Torfaen	66	18
Cardiff	64	1
Ceredigion	61	19
Powys	61	11
Swansea	59	2

 

From this it is not possible to conclude that larger councils and Powys perform better with medium sized authorities taking three of the top four places.

In Scotland the variation in council tax is much less than Wales but the lowest council tax is the Western Islands and Shetland and the largest Council, Glasgow, has the largest band D council tax.

I didn’t find  it possible to get the same data for Scotland as is available for Wales on relative performance.

I look forward to reading an explanation on how larger councils perform better and an explanation of the advantages of larger councils.

 

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