4. 3. Statement: The Draft Budget 2017-18

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:22 pm on 18 October 2016.

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Photo of Mike Hedges Mike Hedges Labour 3:22, 18 October 2016

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Can I just say that what the Minister agreed with Plaid Cymru are a lot of issues that I would have actually been asking him for if he hadn’t?

Austerity for the Tories is a political policy not an economic one. It’s about shrinking the state. It is having a serious effect on public services. I have three questions. On health, can the Minister confirm that the health, well-being and sports budget is now over 50 per cent of managed expenditure and that it’s just under half of total resource and capital?

On local government, which is very important to the people of Wales, especially support for health—things like refuse collection, social services, leisure facilities, environmental health and housing all play a major part in keeping people healthy—the pressures on social services, both child and adult services, are immense, and, I would say, far greater than those on health. The importance of education we’ve discussed earlier. What information does the Cabinet Secretary have on pressures on local government expenditure?

The third question is—we had a statement on Communities First last week, will the Cabinet Secretary be able to tell us what is being cut from the budget in terms of provision? If Communities First is not going to exist in there, what is going to happen to some of the schemes currently being supported by Communities First? Will they exist under another form, or will they just disappear?