‘Generous funding set to unleash Wales’ many abilities’
Here, Welsh Secretary Simon Hart, pictured below, outlines the UK Government’s commitment to spending in Wales over the coming year
FROM the despatch box in Westminster, the Chancellor last week set out the coming year’s spending commitments.
I listened with optimism because, despite all of the uncertainties created by Covid-19, Rishi Sunak’s Spending Review brings plenty of good news for Wales.
His priorities demonstrated our ambition and commitment to build back better and look ahead to prosperity after a year of upheaval.
The headline figure is the £1.3bn in additional funding heading to the Welsh Government for the coming financial year.
It followed the extra £5bn guaranteed above the allocated funding at March’s Spring Budget.
These are unprecedented sums flowing from Westminster to the Welsh Government to help it to deliver public services and to plan its Covid response in the months ahead.
The UK’s economy will contract this year by 11%.
This represents the largest fall since Queen Anne was on the throne, three centuries ago.
While Britain as a whole faces challenging times on this historic scale, the UK’s Conservative government demonstrated its unwavering commitment to Wales last week – difficult cuts in foreign aid and some public-sector pay freezes were made instead.
What stood out for me listening to Rishi Sunak’s statement wasn’t just the steadfast funding to the devolved administration in such straitened circumstances, it was the sheer number of UK-wide plans and projects – with Wales centre-stage and Westminster ready and able to invest directly in its future.
And this builds on the wealth of work on the ground that the UK Government already does.
Sometimes this is forgotten and the fact that Wales has two governments is overlooked.
Between the armed forces, thousands of civil servants, alongside the DVLA, Companies House and the Office for National Statistics in Newport, the UK Government is a significant employer and presence in Wales.
Many more civil servants are being relocated to Wales in the near future, and Wales’ police forces will have their share of the 6,000 additional police officers that will be recruited in 2020-21 as part of the commitment to recruit 20,000 additional officers by 2023.
And we are already a significant direct spender too. This has been proved throughout the pandemic with Treasury support schemes running UK-wide, protecting livelihoods across the Union.
Through the furlough and se l femployed support schemes, more than half a million Welsh jobs have been protected since March. This vital, world-leading safety net is being extended into next year. When a vaccine is ready to be rolled out, which I hope will be very soon, it will be bought and paid for by the UK Government and distributed right across Britain.
As the Chancellor has rightly said, the Treasury is, has been, and will always be the Treasury for the whole of the United Kingdom. He proved this once again last week.
And with this in mind, there was a commitment of more than £100bn in capital investment across the UK in 2021/22 – creating jobs and growing the economy – with Wales a significant beneficiary.
At least one free port, a trading area with simplified customs and taxes, will be coming to Wales, unleashing the potential of Welsh ports to attract new business and to compete on the world stage.
Wales will also benefit from mobile and broadband infrastructure projects, including the Gigabit and Shared Rural Network programmes for cutting-edge mobile and broadband coverage in the most remote parts of the country. By 2025 there will be 4G coverage across 95% of the UK.
Part of our 10-point green industrial revolution will be investment in offshore wind capacity, port infrastructure, carbon capture and storage, and low-carbon hydrogen.
Separately, companies in Wales will be able to access a £14.6bn UKwide research and development fund. All of these initiatives signify a bold look towards technology of the future and our place in it.
And importantly in these uncertain times, thousands of jobs in Wales will be created and supported through the new three-year £2.9 billion Restart programme, alongside £1.4bn of funding to increase Job Centre Plus capacity.
This scheme is excellent news for anyone who needs help to get back into work.
Finally, despite what you may have heard in the hours after the Spending Review, the UK Government is standing by its manifesto commitment to maintain funding for Welsh farmers.
Our pledge to guarantee the £337m of annual funding will remain in place, as promised, for the lifetime of this parliament.
As the EU funding tapers off, the UK Government will increase its contribution to ensure that our commitment is met.
Had we stayed in the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy, funding direct to farmers would have been cut in the coming years by 9%.
Thankfully for Welsh farmers this will not affect them.
The British Government in Westminster is being more imaginative and dynamic than ever in its aspirations for Wales’ future.
Soon, with the return of spending power from Brussels, more direct investment will be possible to act on those aspirations in a targeted, intelligent way.
The Prime Minister, the Chancellor and I are determined to do all in our power to ensure that Wales’ untapped potential is realised and that we forge ahead with levelling up the United Kingdom.
Our spending commitments demonstrate exactly that.