Mark Drakeford: Our spending plans, approved by the Assembly yesterday, provide for nearly £7 billion of capital investment over the next four years.
Mark Drakeford: Well, thank you very much for that second question. Rwy’n parhau i drafod y materion hyn yn rheolaidd gydag Ysgrifennydd y Cabinet dros yr economi. Roedd y drafft o’r gyllideb derfynol, a gymeradwywyd ddoe, yn dangos cynnydd sylweddol yn y dyraniadau cyfalaf sydd ar gael i’r portffolio hwnnw at ddibenion buddsoddi cyfalaf pwysig. Rydym yn parhau i chwilio am ragor o gyfleoedd i allu...
Mark Drakeford: I thank Julie Morgan for that further question. She’s referring to work that was begun by my predecessor, Jane Hutt, because, even with the additional £440 million of capital investment announced in the autumn statement, the Welsh Government’s capital budget will be 21 per cent lower in 2019 than in 2009, and that means that we have had to look for innovative ways in which we can fund...
Mark Drakeford: Well, Chair, in front of the Finance Committee this morning, I explored the fact that there are a range of different capital ways in which we can invest in Wales—traditional capital, financial transaction capital, the new borrowing ability that we will have should the Wales Bill pass, and then innovative funding models. We are trying to use all the levers at our disposal in order to carry...
Mark Drakeford: Thank you for the question. No local authority in Wales has yet contacted the Welsh Government seeking support for a basic income pilot. Nevertheless I intend to monitor the progress of the feasibility work currently being carried out in Fife and Glasgow. While there are clear competence questions to be addressed here, universal basic income has the potential to make a significant...
Mark Drakeford: Thank you for the question. Rwy’n awyddus iawn i gadw mewn cysylltiad â’r gwaith dichonoldeb sy’n mynd rhagddo yn Fife a Glasgow. Credaf ei bod yn bwysig bod yn realistig ynglŷn â’r hyn y maent wedi cychwyn ei wneud. Maent yn gobeithio trefnu astudiaeth ddichonoldeb dros y misoedd nesaf. Byddai’r astudiaeth ddichonoldeb honno yn casglu tystiolaeth, a phe bai’r dystiolaeth...
Mark Drakeford: I thank Huw Irranca-Davies for that contribution. It’s very interesting, the example that he points to. Of course, Finland began a pilot of universal basic income on 1 January this year, which is very much focused on the sort of population to which he referred. That’s a major trial involving 2,000 randomly selected people who are currently unemployed, to see what an unconditional basic...
Mark Drakeford: Thank you.
Mark Drakeford: Can I thank the Member for his question and for the persistence with which he has pursued this issue on the floor of the Assembly? So, Members will recall that discussions with the Chief Secretary to the Treasury began as far back as July of last year and came to a conclusion just after the Assembly went into recess before Christmas, with an agreement between the Welsh Government and the...
Mark Drakeford: Yes, Llywydd, it’s an important point to make, isn’t it, that the fiscal framework will only stand if the Wales Bill proceeds on to the statute book. Making that assumption for the moment, if it does, then this is a permanent agreement. There was a great coup in the last Assembly term when my predecessor, Jane Hutt, negotiated a funding floor for Wales. Establishing that as a principle...
Mark Drakeford: I thank Nick Ramsay. One of the distinctive features of the agreement is that it allows for both sides to introduce independent analysis and advice if there are disputes between the parties. That is a novel feature of the agreement and not something that the Treasury has historically been keen to sign up to. So, the fiscal framework sets out a process as to how any disagreements are to be...
Mark Drakeford: Well, the basic premise on which capital investment decisions are made by the Welsh Government is not geographic. Our ambition is to invest in those capital projects that provide the best return for Wales, and it is the quality of the project, rather than their geographical location, that would be the primary determining factor. That said, there are good ideas and good projects in all parts...
Mark Drakeford: Well, Llywydd—. Look, there is a serious point in what the Member has to say, which is that we all need to recognise that all parts of Wales need to feel that this National Assembly is attentive to their needs, and that what goes on here results in decisions where they can see the benefit in their lives. Where I think he goes wrong is in trying to portray the decisions we make as not having...
Mark Drakeford: I think the Member’s line of questioning this afternoon rather risks him being less of a Welsh nationalist than a particular fraction of Wales nationalism. I am confident that the votes that are necessary in 10 different local authorities across Wales to secure the governance arrangements that will allow us to move forward with the city deal, that those votes will take place and will take...
Mark Drakeford: Well, Llywydd, the job of work I was given to do in negotiating the fiscal framework was to negotiate a framework that would see us through were partial devolution of income tax to take place. That’s why the whole of this agreement is built around that possibility, but it was clear to the Treasury throughout that process that the final decision on whether the Wales Bill would receive the...
Mark Drakeford: No, I think the Member is entirely wrong. He really, really just misunderstands the whole process here. Mr Gauke will be surprised at absolutely nothing that I said in my first answer, because, in every discussion that I held with him, he understood that a precondition to this Assembly giving its consent to a legislative consent motion, if that is what it does, would be that there was a...
Mark Drakeford: Well, if the Member has a quarrel, it’s not with me, it’s with the Secretary of State for Wales, because this was a decision by a Conservative administration in Westminster, not by any politician in this Chamber. Nor is he right—[Interruption.] Not is he right to imply that what the Wales Bill provides is for an automatic rise in taxation. It simply provides this National Assembly with...
Mark Drakeford: The Welsh Treasury has established structures to manage effectively our public resources, including our new tax and borrowing powers. In the coming months, I will be announcing the chair of the Welsh Revenue Authority.
Mark Drakeford: Well, thank you, of course, for the question. I heard yesterday Sian Gwenllian questioning the First Minister arguing for the authority’s headquarters to be located in Caernarfon. Of course, we’ve received a great many letters from Assembly Members trying to persuade me to establish the headquarters across Wales. I understand the reasons for that. The First Minister yesterday explained...
Mark Drakeford: It’s an important point that the Member makes. As we move to establish the Welsh Revenue Authority, and particularly when we have a chair in place, and a board of individuals to support that chair, one of the important things that I will look to them do is to be the public face of that new authority. It is bound to be an organisation that is of particular interest to those people whose...
