, Plenary
Debate: The Local Government Settlement 2023-24
Mike Hedges raised this with me in committee scrutiny last week, when we were scrutinising the second supplementary budget. I have committed to go away and find out what more information we can be providing for those who are involved in what is quite a niche…
, Plenary
Debate: The Local Government Settlement 2023-24
Diolch yn fawr. Thank you to colleagues for their comments in this debate. I'll just respond to some of the specific issues that were raised. Of course, the interest in reserves was raised this afternoon, and of course, the level of local authority reserves…
, Plenary
Debate: The Local Government Settlement 2023-24
Diolch. Today I'm presenting to the Senedd for its approval the 2023-24 local government settlement for the 22 unitary authorities in Wales. First, I'd like to record my thanks to local government, both elected members and staff across local government…
, Plenary
Debate: The Final Budget 2023-24
Well, we fund education differently here in Wales, because we trust local government here in Wales to do the right thing by their schools, and, as I've said, local government is passing that money on to schools and then some, so I think that the…
, Plenary
Debate: The Final Budget 2023-24
Diolch, and thank you to colleagues for their contributions in the debate this afternoon. I'll begin by just responding to some of the comments made by the Chair of the Finance Committee in his remarks, which opened the debate this afternoon. One was, really…
, Plenary
Debate: The Final Budget 2023-24
Despite this context, I remain proud that our approach remains grounded in ensuring that every pound invested makes the greatest positive impact. We have delivered a budget that recognises the need to balance the short-term impacts of the cost-of-living…
, Plenary
Debate: The Final Budget 2023-24
Diolch, Llywydd. I am pleased to open the debate on our 2023-24 final budget. As I outlined when publishing our draft budget, this is undoubtedly a budget made in hard times for hard times. It reflects the constraints of our funding settlement, but despite…
, Plenary
Debate: Welsh Rates of Income Tax 2023-24
Thank you, and thank you to all Members for their contributions to the debate today. Of course, as we move further into Senedd term, we'll continue to keep under review the vital role that WRIT plays as a partially devolved tax here in Wales. I think Llyr…
, Plenary
Debate: Welsh Rates of Income Tax 2023-24
Llywydd, thank you for the opportunity to open this debate on the Welsh rates of income tax resolution for the 2023-24. Welsh rates of income tax were introduced in April 2019 and apply to non-savings, non-dividend income tax payers resident in Wales. Welsh…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Second Supplementary Budget 2022-23
When we set that budget, we had really no concept of what was coming down the line in terms of the war in Ukraine and also the impacts then on energy prices. So, with hindsight, I think that had we known what was coming then we would have been able to factor…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Second Supplementary Budget 2022-23
I think that's a really difficult question, given that this year has been so exceptional in the sense that, when we set the draft budget last year—so, I'm assuming we're talking about the current financial year—
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Second Supplementary Budget 2022-23
Oh no—. [Laughter.]
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Second Supplementary Budget 2022-23
So, for the purposes of the supplementary budget, obviously, the only additional funding is in relation to the exceptional energy costs and the COVID-19 measures. I think the enormity of the question that you've just asked—[Laughter.]—warrants a more detailed…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Second Supplementary Budget 2022-23
So, I'll ask Sharon to come in on this particular point.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Second Supplementary Budget 2022-23
The health Minister will hold funding within her MEG to offset deficits within the NHS organisations. There are no specific allocations to the health and social services MEG to support deficits. This is a management choice that the health Minister will…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Second Supplementary Budget 2022-23
I think we do publish an awful lot of data, I'll double-check what gaps there might be in terms of what we've published. I know we've previously agreed to draw more attention to the work of the finance sub-group, for example, and the distribution sub-group in…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Second Supplementary Budget 2022-23
I would say that the level of reserves held by local authorities is as a result of a number of things, including the spending choices that those authorities make, and the choices they make around the level of council tax that they apply to their local…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Second Supplementary Budget 2022-23
As soon as I said it, I thought—
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Second Supplementary Budget 2022-23
Well, I think, I'd just recognise that local authorities had a very good settlement—exceptionally good—of 9.4 per cent in this financial year. So, I think that they were, at least initially, well placed to meet the challenges. I know that what went from being…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Second Supplementary Budget 2022-23
So, the funding that you see in the supplementary budget and that has been provided all through this year, in fact, supports the welcome centres and the other initial accommodation as well as the wraparound services for people to make sure that they're…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Second Supplementary Budget 2022-23
I think that funding follows the individual to the authority. My colleague Jane Hutt can provide a more detailed briefing on this. But, I will say we are concerned about the reduction of the tariff funding for new arrivals, from £10,500 a year to £5,900 a…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Second Supplementary Budget 2022-23
So, the £74.4 million from the UK Government, that's in the form of integration tariffs, education tariffs and thank-you payments. So, certainly the integration and the education tariffs go directly to local authorities following that individual. So, the…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Second Supplementary Budget 2022-23
I think that some local authorities have found it hard, because there have been places where large numbers of people have wanted to settle, and, obviously, the pressures on local housing are already extreme. So, just being able to support people into the kind…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Second Supplementary Budget 2022-23
So, we did fund in full the costs of the welcome centres, the initial accommodation and the contact centres, and, in some local authorities, those arrival hubs that I talked about; they weren't in every one. So, we fully funded that, but I just want to…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Second Supplementary Budget 2022-23
So, in the final budget, which we published yesterday, we've allocated £40 million to our effort to support people from Ukraine for next year, and £20 million for the year after that. And that's based on what we understand, at the moment at least, to be our…
