MORE than £8 million of UK Government money was spent in one part of Gwent “in haste” with little planning, a top councillor has said.

The cash was provided as a replacement for funds previously received from the European Union but Cllr Paul Griffiths, who has oversight of the spending in Monmouthshire, said a rush by the previous UK Government to put its programme in place, and bypass the Welsh Government, limited the role of local councils.

The Labour councillor said the latest round of the UK Government’s Shared Prosperity Fund has followed a similar pattern, with the reduced level of funding for the 2025/26 financial year only confirmed in the autumn budget and councils notified of their funding awards in mid December.

Cllr Griffiths told councillors considering how the latest round of funding was awarded in Monmouthshire: “By the middle of January allocations had to be made. I keep coming back to what I think is the ridiculous haste.”

Monmouthshire’s cabinet member for the economy said the time frame meant bodies previously funded to deliver projects mostly around skills training and addressing poverty and inequalities, had a month to prepare business cases, statements and analysis so they could continue to operate from April onwards.

“Receiving bodies were presented with, ‘please supply us a business case, and do it within two weeks,” said Cllr Griffiths.

Councillors were examining how nearly £2.4m was awarded in Monmouthshire following a fall out after the Together Works community centre in Caldicot, that is used as a base for at least 16 groups offering community support, was told it would no longer be funded from April.

It was only saved from closure when charity South East Wales Energy Agency stepped in, though it was agreed Together Works will receive £46,000 from the Shared Prosperity Fund for 2025/26 as it seeks a new source of sustainable funding.

Councillors wanted an explanation but Cllr Griffiths said the cabinet could only “approve” the allocations made by the partnership board that had to be put in place in line with rules set out by the previous Conservative government that set up the fund in 2022.

He agreed there is a lack of accountability but blamed the requirement for partnership boards. He and the education director are members of the Monmouthshire board along with representatives from other public service organisations.

Cllr Griffiths said he understood the partnership board is accountable to officers employed by Rhondda Cynon Taf, the lead authority for South East Wales in line with the rules put in place in 2022.

“That group is accountable to a group of civil servants in the UK Government and they are accountable to Angela Rayner (the deputy prime minister) and she is the first politician formally involved in reviewing several hundred project applications across the UK,” said Cllr Griffiths: “It is not a transparent process I would concur with that.”

Cllr Griffiths also told the committee when the process was established in 2022, shortly after Labour formed the council administration following the May elections, he would have preferred more time to engage with communities on what projects should be funded with the £5.9m available over three years. He said the short time frame for the 2025/26 funding process also favoured existing projects.

The cross-party people scrutiny committee agreed it should accept the decision as approved by the cabinet.

Conservative committee member Penny Jones said she feared ordering the cabinet to look again, or referring a decision to the full council would mean uncertainty for staff in projects reliant on the funding.

Committee chair, Labour’s Cllr Laura Wright, said members weren’t happy with the process but accepted it wasn’t in the control of the council and it’s hoped the overview scrutiny committee could consider how a future scheme could work.