We note the publication of the Budget and will study its content carefully.
We welcome the additional ‘consequentials’ of almost £50m for 2010-11 announced in the Chancellor’s Budget. We will make decisions on the use of this funding later this year. But our intention is to use it to ensure public services in Wales are better able to deal with tighter budgets in future years.
Small businesses in Wales will welcome the new National Growth Fund, to which Welsh SMEs will have access, and the extension of the time to Pay scheme for business taxes.
Detailed UK spending plans for the period after 2010-11 are not included in the Budget. More details have been provided of how the £20bn in savings announced in the Pre-Budget Report will be delivered by UK Government departments. But it is still not yet possible to say exactly what our future settlement will be.
The picture of the public finances presented in the Budget is more encouraging than that presented in the Pre-Budget Report. This is, in part, due to the positive action taken by the Welsh Assembly Government working with the UK government to tackle the economic downturn, including maintaining public spending levels in 2010-11.
Nevertheless, there remain exceptional challenges to public service providers in the current financial climate. Wales is facing an increasingly tight series of budgets and the challenge is to protect public services. One of key objectives of this government is to bring about a reform of the way Wales is funded through the Barnett formula and we will continue to press the UK Government on this matter.
We recently held the first Public Services Summit, bringing all our partners together to pledge a national response to the pressure we face. And the new Wales Efficiency and Innovation Board met for the first time last week, involving partners across the public services. This Board will drive a national programme to transform operational efficiency, catalyse innovation in the way that public services are designed and delivered, and promote collaboration. This will build on the Team Wales approach adopted by the Economic Summits which has helped Wales through the recession.
Past experience has shown what happens when financial pressures are translated into salami slicing cuts in services and front-line jobs – with those in greatest need often taking the biggest hit. That is unacceptable. As a Nation, we have to do everything we can to narrow the equality gap, not widen it.
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