SOME local services in Monmouthshire are becoming increasingly unsustainable as budgets become tighter, a Wales Audit Office report said.

The report looking at the authority’s services in 2012/13 found that while the council is good at managing its budget, some savings targets are not being realised.

It criticised the council’s housing department saying there was limited capacity in the service while the area faces a growing housing crisis.

Auditors said the council’s day-to-day budget monitoring is sound and savings have been approved with expenditure reducing. But the report says: “Approved savings targets are not always being realised and some local services are becoming increasingly unsustainable.”

The WAO says the authority isn’t tracking and measuring whether targets are being met on a regular basis.

Peformance in housing services – one of the three departments looked at by the WAO – remains mixed.

Capacity within the service is “extremely limited”, auditors say, no statutory service has been stopped but attendance at meetings and events has been cut back and funded prevention work has been suspended.

The loss of administrative support within the service is hitting delivery and the services’ ability to respond to increasing demand, auditors added.

This all comes as the council faces “a growing housing crisis”, the report says, with homelessness in Monmouthshire growing.

Environmental health, another department looked at by the report, is managing with a reduced budget but has had to reduce its work in a number of areas.

Councillor Dimitri Batrouni leader of Labour opposition group said: “This is another independent report, like the report from Estyn on education, that shows the Tory/Lib Dem council has failed to foresee and act on a growing problem in a vital area: housing and homelessness.

Cabinet member for environment, public services and housing, Giles Howard, said: “The strategic housing team is working with the WLGA and jointly with Torfaen. We all believe that prevention is better than cure, but the answer is not to jump in with off-the-cuff proposals designed to get a headline, but to plan for the long-term.”