(Title Image: Senedd Cymru)
- Education, social housing and town centre regeneration prioritised in the post-pandemic recovery plan.
- £4billion allocated to pandemic response in Wales to date, but uncertainty remains over next year’s Welsh budget.
- Criticism of lack of detail on precisely how the recovery will be delivered on the ground.
Yesterday, MSs received separate updates on coronavirus recovery as well as the potential financial impact of the pandemic.
Over 2,000 responses to coronavirus recovery consultation
The Minister in charge of the pandemic recovery, Counsel General, Jeremy Miles (Lab, Neath), said more than 2,000 responses had been received on the Welsh Government’s consultation. He’s published a report setting out the challenges and priorities going forward (pdf). The top priorities include skills, increased social housing, investing in town centres and demand-led public transport.
Darren Millar MS (Con, Clwyd West) thought the priorities – such as encouraging home or remote working and boosting public transport – might contradict each other. He also criticised the fact older people featured very little in the report.
Another missing area picked up by Delyth Jewell MS (Plaid, South Wales East) was mental health, though there was a general criticism regarding a lack of detail on how the priorities would be delivered. Additionally, Jenny Rathbone MS (Lab, Cardiff Central) believed the government could’ve been more radical on housing, bringing private housing up to the same standard as social housing through changes to building regulations.
Wales “may need to overspend” next year
Finance Minister & Trefnydd, Rebecca Evans (Lab, Gower), said £4billion has been committed to the coronavirus response in Wales from a mix of Welsh and UK government funding. The priorities announced by the Counsel General would be supported by an additional £320million.
That said, there remains a great deal of uncertainty and she repeated calls for greater financial flexibility in Wales, including the ability to run a deficit during 2021-22.
Shadow Finance Minister, Nick Ramsay MS (Con, Monmouth), generally supports financial flexibility but warned that it’s not a panacea. Governments around the world are having to make assumptions on how much they’ll have to spend and Wales isn’t unique; it was unfair to criticise the UK Government for that.
Rhun ap Iorwerth MS (Plaid, Ynys Môn) pointed out another missing area – local government. Given the important role they’ve played, this was surprising. He raised the prospect of another supplementary budget being needed – and the Minister confirmed one was being prepared for later this month.
Alun Davies MS (Lab, Blaenau Gwent) said the Welsh Government wasn’t making the most of fiscal powers they already have, saying “I don’t think we can realise our ambitions….with Tory levels of taxation” – code for “tax rises”, which the Minister ruled out for the remainder of this term.
However, tax policy was something all parties would need to think about before next year’s election.
