, Plenary
Statement by the Minister for Finance and Local Government: Ystadau Cymru
Diolch. I'm pleased to provide an update on the work of Ystadau Cymru. Ystadau Cymru brings together asset managers from across the public estate in Wales. Our public estate is diverse, ranging from built assets such as hospitals and schools, and the…
, Plenary
Debate on a Statement: The Draft Budget 2024-25
And again, in health, I think that it's important to recognise that there is no reduction in our front-line delivery for mental health. We've heard about the fact that we haven't been able to uplift the budget by £15 million as we had intended, but it's not a…
, Plenary
Debate on a Statement: The Draft Budget 2024-25
We make our own decisions around Welsh rates of income tax and other taxes that are devolved to us, for example, and then we have to agree, as a Cabinet, our revised main expenditure group allocations for all colleagues. And then all colleagues will have to…
, Plenary
Debate on a Statement: The Draft Budget 2024-25
Diolch, Llywydd. I'm really grateful to all colleagues for their contributions this afternoon, I think the vast majority of which did recognise the situation in which we find ourselves and respected, I suppose, the difficult choices that this Government is…
, Plenary
Debate on a Statement: The Draft Budget 2024-25
We have focused funding to invest more in the NHS and to protect the core local government settlement, which in turn funds schools, social services, and the other vital everyday services that we rely on. We have reshaped our budgets in line with a set of…
, Plenary
Debate on a Statement: The Draft Budget 2024-25
Thank you. I’m pleased to make a statement on the Welsh Government’s draft budget for 2024-25, which was laid on 19 December. Let me be clear: Wales is facing the toughest financial situation since the start of devolution. In making this draft budget, my…
, Finance Committee
Motion under Standing Order 17.42(ix) to resolve to exclude the public from the remainder of this meeting
Thank you. Merry Christmas.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 1
So, overall, we are experiencing a loss worth around £1.1 billion, but we've also had the issues where the UK Government's approach to those tail receipts for EU funding has had an impact on our budgets as well. I know we've had quite extensive discussions…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 1
Well, we're experiencing a loss in replacement of EU structural and rural funds worth around £1.1 billion. So, there's just no way on earth we can fill that gap in its entirety. We have still tried to maintain our commitment, though, to apprenticeships. So…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 1
So, a few things, just to say, and just to highlight the distributional impact assessment that's been done of the budget as well, which shows that, overall, the budget is a progressive one and that we do provide the greatest share of our resources towards…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 1
So, the housing support grant has been protected at £166.7 million. I appreciate that's less than the sector would wish. They would be very keen to see an increase. But, as I set out at the start, the particular grant did see a significant increase at the…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 1
So, we've been really careful to maintain our allocation of £38.5 million for the discretionary assistance fund. We know that that helps people across Wales who are facing some quite dire circumstances, and it gives them emergency access to financial support…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 1
I can certainly explore that with the local government finance officials.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 1
So, some authorities—. I don't think any authority was that low last year, and the overall uplift last year was 7.9 per cent. So, we were in a much better place. And I think it was 9.3 per cent the year before. So, each year, that's been baselined into the…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 1
So, I wouldn't want this to set a precedent or expectations for the future. I think that the current circumstances are, hopefully, quite unique in terms of the pressures local authorities are facing.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 1
No, it hasn't been top-sliced. We did look at what that would mean for authorities to see, if we were to take it through the revenue support grant and redistribute in that sense, but, when it came to it, I thought, you know, we've made the commitment about…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 1
Yes. So, in keeping the commitment to the 3.1 per cent for local government overall, when we ran the figures to see what that would mean locally through the local government funding formula, there were two authorities that fell below 2 per cent, and I thought…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 1
So, schools funding and social care funding form the two largest parts of the local government budgets, which are set locally in response to those local needs. Those two areas, I think, will continue to be the main areas and I think we need to be realistic…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 1
So, the health Minister will set out the level of detail in the evidence that she provides to the health committee in the Senedd, but I know that, in that, she’d want to highlight the planned care transformation budget to support those local and national…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 1
Yes, and there is specific funding in the NHS budget for planned care transformation, basically to improve people's experience of accessing healthcare in a more timely and efficient manner. What the health Minister will be doing will be setting out her…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 1
I don't want to overpromise in terms of what the additional funding will deliver within the NHS, because we know that the NHS is still going to be under significant pressure even with the choices that we've made. But what it does do is give the NHS a fighting…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 1
You'll have to ask the BBC because I'm due there next. [Laughter.] But I'm sure they'll be fine.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 1
So, in terms of the real living wage, that would be included in the settlement that’s been provided to local government—this is the real living wage for social care workers, which was one of our commitments. There is no specific funding available to support…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 1
We’ve had to take some difficult decisions across the board, but what I will say is that a significant amount of our response to the climate and nature emergency is through our capital investment, and at the start of the three-year spending review, we…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 1
The first thing to say, really, is just how grateful I am to Siân Gwenllian as the designated Member for the co-operation agreement for her ongoing engagement with the budget. I think the engagement has been really constructive, and I think that, through the…
