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Newport’s council leader has warned against a shake-up of council funding in Wales, which he fears could impact cities.

Cllr Dimitri Batrouni cited comments made by Peredur Owen Griffiths, a Plaid Cymru Senedd Member, during a recent debate on local government funding in the Welsh Parliament.

The MS said that if his party wins power in May, it will “look into renewing and reforming the local government funding formula so that it is fair and reflects the realities of serving larger rural populations”.

Cllr Batrouni said “everyone supports a funding floor for our rural authorities, but cutting cities is not a growth agenda”.

“It is deeply worrying Plaid are looking to starve Newport, and other Welsh cities, of funding,” the council leader alleged. “It is economic madness to cut funding for our cities, which contain the most people and drive the Welsh economy.”

In response, Mr Owen Griffiths cited his party’s recent budget deal with the Welsh Government, and warned against “Labour politicians lashing out to distract from the fact that their budget only works because Plaid Cymru stepped in to do the right thing”.

Newport has received the highest percentage increase in local government settlement funding in each of the past three years, which Cllr Batrouni said was down to census data showing the city is the fastest growing area of Wales.

Cllr Batrouni said that growth “requires substantial infrastructure investment, with a booming population and double-digit growth in our under 16s”.

He explained how Newport features highly in rankings for the “major drivers” of council funding – which include population growth, the number of children in schools, and deprivation levels.

“To boost funding for rural areas in any meaningful way, you have to change those elements”, he said, adding some of those areas have declining populations or falling numbers of under-16s.

“I would have expected Plaid’s leading candidate for Casnewydd Islwyn to be fighting for our city to have the funds it needs to match our expansion,” claimed Cllr Batrouni. “Sadly, and very disappointingly, the opposite seems to be happening.”

Mr Owen Griffiths branded the council leader’s comments as “a desperate and inaccurate attempt to rewrite the record”, however.

“It was Plaid Cymru that stepped in to rescue local government from a catastrophic Labour draft budget that would have pushed councils towards bankruptcy, mass job losses and double-digit council tax rises,” he said.

“Newport is receiving 6.1% uplift – or over extra £6m from the draft settlement initially offered by the Labour Welsh Government,” added Mr Owen Griffiths. “That has provided stability, protected services and taken 10%-plus council tax rises off the table. Labour failed to deliver that – Plaid did.”

The Senedd Member said the council funding formula “no longer reflects modern pressures”, and while fast-growing cities deserve funding to meet pressures, “so do councils serving dispersed rural populations with higher service costs and weaker tax bases”.

“Newport deserves serious leadership focused on securing investment and reforming a broken system,” Mr Owen Griffiths alleged, adding his party would “ensure funding keeps pace with need – not pit communities against each other.”