Welsh Conservative research has uncovered that a number of councils expect to overspend their allocation of funding to administer Labour’s blanket free school meals policy. Commenting on the findings, Welsh Conservative Shadow Local Government Minister, Sam Rowlands MS said:
“The Welsh Conservatives have argued against this policy on the grounds that a blanket, untargeted approach means spending taxpayers’ cash on feeding the children of those parents who can afford it.
“It seems from these figures that Flintshire, Gwynedd, Newport and Monmouthshire councils are set to overspend, frontloading the costs of this scheme in the expectation that future budget increases will cover the inevitable upcoming shortfalls, which is very distressing.
“The numbers so far do not add up, indicating that this is turning out to be yet another uncosted Labour project set to eat a hole in Wales’ budget and shred councils’ reserves, resulting in less money for other essential frontline services.”
- Flintshire council expect to spend at least £1.8 million for 2022/23 which would exceed their capital funding grant allocation by over £500,000.
- Gwynedd council are expecting to spend £1.6 million, a nearly £500,000 overspend.
- Newport Council expect to exceed their allocated £1.28 million and plan to hire 22 more kitchen staff and offer additional hours to current staff.
- Monmouthshire Council has allocated an expected £1.6 million for kitchen refurbishments in their 31 primary schools as well as funds for an additional 21 kitchen staff and potentially 14 or more staff on top of this. This would represent an over £1.3 million overspend of their capital funding grant, so far.
