Mr Thomas, who body’s members includes all 22 unitary authorities in Wales, as well as the police, fire brigades and national parks, said that the Government is looking at public spending slowing from an average of 2.1% from 2008-11 to 1.2% for 2011-14.

On the forecast he told a business audience: “I think that is probably too optimistic.

“The Institute of Fiscal Studies estimated that public services will miss out by an estimated £37bn from 2011-14. And the Government is calling for £5bn worth more in efficiency savings.

“What Andrew Davies [Assembly Government’s Minister for Finance] was saying last week was this would see around a £300m Barnett Formula cut for Wales and a £200m reduction on its capital budget. And to get very gloomy European Union funding will end in 2014.”

On staffing levels in a more stringent budgetary environment Mr Thomas said: “I suspect that we are going to see a second wave of job losses in this recession – having seen the carnage in retail and construction – with a significant downsizing of the public sector. In the next two years we could be looking at 2,000 jobs losses in Wales.”

And he said any job losses in the public sector would have significant cost implications.

This is a very real consequence of the recession but it will not help anybody if the Finance Minister continues to deny any responsibility for managing this crisis. His repeated assertion that the pressures faced by Local Government have nothing to do with the Welsh Assembly Government do not stack up, especially when he is failing to pass on block grant increases he is receiving to local councils so as to fund his own schemes.

The Minister also continues to grandstand in his local press where he is vocal in accusing his own council of mismanagement even though they are in the same boat as every other County Council in Wales.

Nobody is saying that the Welsh Government can pull rabbits out of a hat to sort this out but a reasonable expectation is that they play fair with local government. They should recognise that councils deliver many key services that deserve funding parity with anything funded directly by Government. It would also help if instead of playing the blame-game, Ministers work with councils to mitigate the effects of this recession, minimise job losses and protect services.

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