The Welsh local government secretary has announced more than £4bn of funding for councils in a bid to provide ‘stability'.

Mark Drakeford announced yesterday that local government would receive £4.1bn worth of funding for 2017/18.

‘The aim of this provisional settlement is to give local authorities the stability to manage the difficult decisions that lie ahead,' he said.

‘We know that councils are delivering their services against a backdrop of austerity and this settlement provides a platform from which to plan for harder choices which will lie ahead.'

Local government will see an increase in its funding for 2017/18 of £3.8m compared to 2016/17.

The settlement includes £25m to support the delivery of social services, as well as £1m for school transport and £3m for a pilot scheme to support town centre car parking.

Mr Drakeford said the package included additional funding to implement a minus 0.5% funding floor which will limit the impact on councils that ‘would have seen the biggest reductions in their core funding'.

‘This is the first cash increase in the local government settlement since 2013/14,' he said.

‘Under the funding floor, no council will have to manage on less than 99.5% of the cash provided to them last year.  

‘When added to the other sources of income available to them, many councils will be able to increase their spending next year.'