Extra £160m for NHS and councils
AN extra £160m will be allocated to local government and the health service over the next two years in the Welsh Government’s final Budget, it has been announced.
Councils will receive an additional £20m in 2018-19 and £40m in 2019-20.
An extra £50m a year will be allocated to the Welsh NHS in 2018-19 and 2019-20 to support the ongoing transformation of services, primary care and the Integrated Care Fund.
Finance Secretary Mark Drakeford (pictured) said: “The final Budget marks a significant milestone in Wales’ devolution journey as, for the first time, Wales becomes responsible for raising a pro- portion of its own revenue from two new devolved taxes to spend on public services.
“I am pleased to be able to provide additional funding for public services – areas we know need extra support.
“This funding will help to ease some of the pressures on frontline public services, which have been struggling to cope as a result of the successive cuts.”
Due to the short timeframe between the UK Govern-vern ment’s Autumn Budgetget and the publication off the Welsh Government’s final Budget, the Finance Secretary will announce early decisions about additional capital funding allocations inin the Spring. He has previously announced a new higher starting threshold of £180,000 for the main land transaction tax residential rate – formerly stamp duty – which will mean tens of thousands of homebuyers will be exempt from paying the property tax from April 1 2018. Cabinet Secretary for Local Government and Public Services, Alun Davies, said: “We have listened to the concerns raisedraised by many of our councils,cils, and we have acted to adaddress some of the pressures that exist in important areas such aas youth homelessnness.” Cabinet Secretary forfo Health and Social Services,Ser Vaughan Geth- ing, said: “The additional investment in the health and social services budget now gives me a real opportunity to provide targeted funding to drive forward change in health services through integration, a greater focus on primary care, and strategic change in hospital-based services.”
The final Budget will be laid at 2pm today, with a vote on the final Budget 2018-19 at the Senedd on January 16.
“When the draft Budget was published in October, Mr Drakeford announced a boost of more than £400m for the delivery of core health services in 2018-19.
The money available for the delivery of core NHS services was set to rise from £6.44bn in the current financial year to £6.86bn in 2018-19.
A further rise in 2019-20 would see the total budget line hit £7.08bn.
When all spending on health, wellbeing and sport is taken into consideration, the departmental budget was planned to rise from £7.49bn in 2017-18 to £7.65bn in 2018-19 and £7.88bn in 2019-20. The extra money announced yesterday is on top of that.
At the time of the draft Budget, local government funding was set to rise from £4.5bn in 2017-18 to £4.54bn in 2018-19, but would fall back to £4.48bn in 2019-20.
Under the draft local government settlement, every local authority was due to have a real-terms cut in funding.
The communities and chil- dren budget is set to rise from £765m to £901m in 2018-19, but falls to £805m in 2019-20.
The budget of the economy and infrastructure department is due to fall from £1.48bn in 2017-18 to £1.25bn in 2018-19, but to rise to £1.42bn in 201920.
The education budget rises from £1.99bn in 2017-18 to £2.16bn in 2018-19 and £2.29bn in 2019-20.
The department of environment and rural affairs budget will decline from £385.56m in 2017-18 to £346.07m in 201819 and £324.66m in 2019-20.
The cost of the Welsh Government’s central services and administration division is set to decline from £308.06m in 2017-18 to £299.55m in 201819 and £288.74m in 2019-20.