Powys Council has vowed to prioritise "financial prudence" as it sets its budgets for the next year.

Just before Christmas, the Welsh Government is due to announce its draft financial settlement for all 22 Welsh local authorities for 2022/23.

At a meeting of Powys County Council’s Governance and Audit committee on Thursday, November 18 councillors looked at the finances as part of a wider discussion of its risk register.

One of these risks noted in the register is whether the council is able to deliver a financially sustainable budget.

The register says that funding Welsh Government Covid Hardship funding is being claimed to deal with the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic and that discussions on the settlement are now taking place.

At the meeting, committee chairman Cllr John Morris said: “How much are we relying on a better Welsh Government settlement for our budget?”

Head of finance Jane Thomas said: “Prudence is the key word for me in terms of budget planning.

“We do not plan on an improved settlement we work on a worst case scenario.

“We develop the budget on a sliding scale with scenario planning that looks at a number of different percentages.

“If it’s better we then know this is what we can do.”

She added that each percentage point increase in the settlement is worth £1.9 million to the council.

Finance portfolio holder, Cllr Aled Davies added that the Welsh local authorities were working together through the Welsh Local Government Association to press the Welsh Government for a “fair share” of the £2.5 billion extra funding given to Wales by the UK Government.

“Strong efforts are being made to make sure we have an adequate share of that," said Cllr Davies.

Last year Welsh Government gave Powys a four per cent rise of just over £7.3 million in funding.

This took the revenue settlement for Powys, from the Welsh Government up to £191.9 million.

This extra funding also saw Powys move up to eighth out of of 22 local authorities in the Welsh funding table.

With the council tax and grant funding added to the budget, the total figure for the 2021/22 is £279.8 million.