'What we got was a Budget that papered over the cracks'

MS for North Wales

Speaking during the Debate in the Welsh Parliament on the Welsh Government’s Final Budget 2021-22, I said “After more than two decades of Labour Budgets since devolution, Wales still has the lowest wage and employment levels, and highest proportion of low-paid jobs in Britain, and the lowest prosperity levels and long-term pay growth, and highest poverty rate, of all UK Nations. We needed a Budget to fix the foundations and build a more secure and prosperous economy for the future. Instead, what we got was a Budget that papered over the cracks rather than rebuilding the foundations, a Budget that shows this Welsh Government do not understand what went wrong in the last two decades or what is needed in the next”.

Questioning the First Minister, I asked “how will you ensure additional transparency regarding Welsh Government budgets, where, for example, the Welsh Government has failed to allocate any of the extra UK Government funding, unlike Scotland, meaning that you have failed to allocate £1.3 Billion in the Budget”.

Speaking in the debate on the Welsh Government’s ‘Third Supplementary Budget 2020-21’, I challenged the Finance Minister over her statement that the Welsh Government will be carrying £660 million over into the next financial year, and emphasised the need for Local Authorities and the Third Sector to be adequately funded to deal with the impact of the pandemic.

Following this month’s news that Llangollen Railway PLC is to go into receivership, I called for a Welsh Government Statement on support for the railway, stressing that “the impact this will have on their staff, volunteers, customers, suppliers, locomotive owners and their organisations, and anyone else with connections to the Railway, is potentially serious, as is the wider impact on the visitor economy in Llangollen and throughout the Dee Valley”.

Following the UK Chancellor’s announcement of more than £93 million for a green recovery in Wales, I also asked the Environment Minister how the Welsh Government will engage with the green projects and greener fuels in North Wales which will benefit from this.

I Chaired the final meetings of the Cross-Party Groups for Funerals and Bereavement, and Neurological Conditions, during this Welsh Parliament term, and attended the Welsh Parliament’s Finance and Business Committees.

Other online engagements included Leonard Cheshire Disability’s Health and Social Care Question Time event, a meeting to discuss the work of the National Academy for Educational Leadership Wales, and a further Anglesey Freeport Steering Group meeting.

Stay safe. If you need my help, email Mark.Isherwood@senedd.wales or call 0300 200 7219.