The Chancellor said Cardiff and Wrexham will see civil service jobs

In his pre-budget report on Thursday, Chancellor Gordon Brown announced Wales would receive �7.4m.

Assembly Finance Minister Sue Essex called the extra funds "very good news".

She said the assembly government had already provided more money to help keep council taxes down.

The Chancellor also said �1bn was being made available to all councils towards childcare and to counteract any rises in council tax.

In Wales, it should translate as an extra �7.4m, although that money will be spent at the assembly government's discretion.

Assembly Finance Minister Sue Essex said: "As usual, together with my Cabinet colleagues, I will now consider how they should be allocated in support of our strategic priorities.

"Next year there will be �53m to help local authorities keep the levels of council tax down and council tax payers to meet the bills."

'Double whammy'

Ms Essex said the assembly government has already acted to minimise council taxes in Wales through providing around �11m to moderate the revaluation exercise, as well as an extra �1.8m in grant support.

Welsh Secretary Peter Hain said he was "confident" that the assembly government would help keep council tax rises to a minimum.

Tory health spokesman Jonathan Morgan AM said: "I believe the assembly government should allocate this money towards alleviating council tax bills.

"We've had a double whammy in many parts of Wales with re-evaluation exercise and a very poor local government settlement in certain parts of Wales."

The Welsh Local Government Association said that it wanted the assembly government to ensure that any additional money to tackle council tax increases will be "passported" fully to councils in order to keep next year's council tax levels to a minimum.

Defiant statement

Flintshire councillor Alex Aldridge, WLGA Leader, said: "More money is always welcome but this, as yet, is not enough to deal with distinctively Welsh issues, particularly the impact of council tax revaluation."

Mr Aldridge added that the money "did not cover the Treasury-led cut of �13.5m in the Supporting People programme in Wales," which support the elderly and people with learning difficulties.

Meanwhile, more civil service jobs are set to move to Wales from London and the south east of England.

In the same pre-budget report, the Chancellor said Revenue and Customs posts will move to Cardiff and Department of Works and Pensions (DWP) jobs will be switched to Wrexham.

Cardiff is one of five locations for the 220 Revenue and Customs jobs.

Last month, thousands of civil servants went on strike for a day in protest at an expected 6,000 job cuts in Wales.

Mr Brown said on Thursday that a total of 2,300 DWP posts were being relocated, with Liverpool and Newcastle also gaining jobs.

He had already announced in September that 600 jobs from the Office of National Statistics were to move to Newport.

After last month's strike, Gordon Brown issued a defiant statement saying the action would not affect the government's "determination" to make savings in order to increase investment in healthcare, education, transport and the fight against crime.