The leader of Gwynedd Council has put further pressure on the Welsh Government by calling for extra cash from the treasury to be passed on to beleaguered local authorities.

Gwynedd Council has faced £25m of funding cuts over the past four years, with year-on-year council tax rises to make up some of the shortfall.

This is largely due to reductions in its block grant during a decade of austerity.

While Brexit means that uncertainty prevails, Cardiff Bay has been urged to provide “more clarity” so that number crunchers can plan next year’s budget.

During the recent spending review, Chancellor Sajid Javid said that the Welsh Government would be receiving an extra £600m as part of the “biggest spending settlement for a decade”, with funding rising to £14.8bn for 2020-21.

According to the Welsh Local Government Association, which represents the 22 local authorities, investing this money in council services such as social care, schools and housing would give communities “a desperately needed funding boost after a decade of punishing cuts”.

Responding to claims that councils “could no longer go back to ratepayers and ask them to fill the gap”, the finance minister told the Senedd last week that they wanted to give local government “the best possible settlement”.

But Cllr Dyfrig Siencyn, leader of Gwynedd Council added to the pressure this week, and claimed that local government is the “poor relation” due to a decision to prioritise health spending.

“We are getting to a point where more cuts will have a direct impact on essential services, such as the care of vulnerable adults, older people, vulnerable children and our children’s education if this pattern of severe under funding continues from the Welsh and the UK Governments,” he said.

He went on to say that the authority continues to face such challenges “despite planning and preparing their finances carefully and thoroughly for many years”.

“Here in Gwynedd, we are acutely aware that there will be a financial hole in our budgets, due to the under-funding, in paying inflation to teachers and local government staff’s salaries and pensions, and the increased costs to the social care workforce due to higher demands,” he said.

“There will be a financial gap in our children’s services grant and dementia care for the coming year, and legislative changes will also need to be funded in 2020.”

In response, finance minister Rebecca Evans confirmed that she hoped that more certainty would “soon” be available.

“We’re having those clear discussions with local government, in terms of what they’ve identified as the pressures that they’re experiencing within their budget, but also their ambitions to do more in future years,” she told the Senedd. I have a meeting (next week) with the local government minister with the local government finance sub-group, so, we will be having some early discussions about the budget for next year. We’ve only had our spending round funding announcement for around two weeks, so, at this point, I’m not able to make the kind of announcements that we’re all keen to hear, but I will try and give that kind of certainty as soon as possible.”