Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance – in the Senedd at 1:43 pm on 18 July 2018.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 1:43, 18 July 2018

Well, thanks, Steffan Lewis, for that. He's absolutely right to say that the OBR's latest forecast is consistent with what they have been saying for many months now. They are part of that economic mainstream that tells us that if we were to leave the European Union on a crash-out 'no deal' basis, then we're facing a contraction of our economy between 8 per cent and 10 per cent, and that is massive. Now, not everybody agrees with it, but mainstream economic forecasters such as the OBR are in exactly that position. 

We don't have the assurances from the UK Government that Steffan Lewis has asked about, although I have discussed this issue directly with the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, directly with the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and made our point. We will not sign up to a shared prosperity fund that, for example, might offer us a Barnett share of that fund, which would undoubtedly be well below what we have as a result of the needs assessment that leads to the money that we get from the European Union. Nor will we sign up to a bidding regime for a shared prosperity fund in which UK Government Ministers set the rules, UK Government Ministers make the decisions and UK Government Ministers adjudicate on disputes when those arise. We have given the UK Treasury a solution to a problem, and they're not an organisation short of problems on their hands. The solution is the one we set out in our document: simply put into the baseline of the National Assembly the money that we get as a result of our qualification for that help under the European Union and then allow us to make the decisions that will allow us to align that money with the needs of our regional economic development for the future.