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Debate: The Draft Budget 2024-25
And I will be honest, we have had some contributions this afternoon that have just been a long list of things, telling the Welsh Government what it must do to make things better for people in Wales. Absolutely nothing from many of those people making…
, Plenary
Debate: The Draft Budget 2024-25
Great. Thank you very much, Llywydd. And thank you to all of those colleagues who've made thoughtful and constructive contributions in the debate today, and also particularly to the committee Chairs. And I know that they've passed on the thanks to those…
, Plenary
Debate: The Draft Budget 2024-25
By taking this approach, we have focused funding to invest more in the NHS—£450 million in 2024-25, in addition to the £425 million that we made available in October for 2023-24. We’re protecting the core local government settlement. Alongside the 3.1 per…
, Plenary
Debate: The Draft Budget 2024-25
Diolch. I'm pleased to open this afternoon's debate on the Welsh Government's draft budget for 2024-25. Since we had the first opportunity to debate the draft budget in the Senedd on 9 January, Senedd committees have been busy scrutinising our spending plans…
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Welsh Conservatives Debate: Business rates relief
Diolch, Llywydd. The Welsh Government recognises the ongoing economic challenges faced by ratepayers, but I think we also have to recognise that all citizens and public services in Wales are also exposed to similar pressures. Non-domestic rates are a really…
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Welsh Conservatives Debate: Business rates relief
Yes, formally.
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Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
Yes, this is a really important part of our work in terms of developing our budget process and particularly so through the budget improvement plan that was published alongside the draft budget. It’s a rolling five-year programme, so every year we update that…
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Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
We consider the equality impacts of our spending decisions through our strategic integrated impact assessment. Local authorities are under the same obligations to understand the impact of their decisions in terms of equality legislation and under the…
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Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
Perhaps I should ask the Deputy Minister to write to you again with some further clarification in terms of what she set out in her letter to you.FootnoteLink I understand that in England things are moving at a different rate, because I know that there are…
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
Thank you. So, during 2023-24 and 2024-25, we’ll be investing £46 million in expanding Flying Start childcare to support the long-term positive impacts on the lives of those children and the families in Wales facing some of the greatest challenges, and the…
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Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
I meet regularly with ministerial colleagues on a range of matters, including these important programme for government and co-operation agreement commitments. This is the toughest financial situation Wales has faced since devolution, but I'm pleased that the…
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Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
What I agree with, as I said to Natasha Asghar, is the large number of Conservative MPs and former Ministers who have written to the UK Government saying that local government needs to be better resourced. I absolutely agree with that. We haven't seen these…
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Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
There's a comprehensive framework of assurance and accountability for local authorities set out in legislation and guidance. Local scrutiny is an important part of this, and Audit Wales provides a consistent and valued process of assurance.
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Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
In terms of the particular point that the Member was making around the 300 per cent, which we've allowed local authorities to charge on second home properties or empty homes, it's only Pembrokeshire and Monmouthshire that have adopted the maximum council tax…
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Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
We continually monitor the impacts of our policies to ensure that we are providing the most appropriate support within our available funding. We engage with stakeholders and partners, including small businesses, to gain insight into the effectiveness of…
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Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
I would say that you can't have a £1.3 billion pressure on the budget and for there just not to be any consequences anywhere. There will be consequences from the choices that we've made, but we've had to make those choices, because our budget is worth so much…
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Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
I would argue that the Welsh Government does provide an extraordinary amount of data to the Senedd. We actually have a number of points throughout the year where we provide that detailed information. We have our draft budget. We have the final budget. But…
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Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
Welsh Ministers use of a range of evidence in monitoring budgets, with our finance system operating on a real-time basis. The robustness of information also needs to be considered. Real time doesn’t always mean more accurate. Real-time data from a small…
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Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
I know that councils will be very carefully considering their proposals as they consult with local authorities on their plans for their budgets, and also how they consider council tax, for example. Caerphilly council will absolutely be listening carefully to…
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Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
Yes, I'm really thankful to John Griffiths for raising that example in the Chamber this afternoon. The recipe book sounds wonderful and I think it really shows an example of what libraries can do, which is about so much more than simply books, if you like…
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Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
The provision of public libraries is the responsibility of local authorities. The Welsh Government provides funding to enable the development of library services, including revenue support for the national digital library service, and a capital transformation…
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Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
So, the funding that we have provided to Transport for Wales is what we understand through the climate change Minister and the Deputy Minister for Climate Change to be the minimum, really, that Transport for Wales need in order to continue running the rail…
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Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
So, without the benefit of a calculator at the fingertips, what you say sounds about right, certainly, but I can confirm that outside the Chamber. But I think this is simply a matter of what’s affordable. So, when we saw the figures that arose then from the…
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Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
So, the legislation, which we've just introduced, would allow us to take a different approach in future. In Wales, at the moment, as things stand, we only have the one multiplier set in law, so we can only make changes to the whole multiplier across the whole…
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Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
So, as I described in my answer to a previous question, the Welsh Government is facing a pressure on our budget of £1.3 billion, in the sense of our budget being worth that much less than at the time it was originally set. The challenge there, then, is to…
