I want to welcome the Cabinet Secretary's draft budget today, designed to sustain the fabric of Welsh life, and welcome the Cabinet Secretary's clear commitment to supporting our public services, embracing new tax powers and responsibilities. At the Assembly Finance Committee last week, we received a briefing from the Welsh Treasury and HMRC about the new Welsh rates of income tax that will come into force next April. I support your proposals for devolved taxes with this draft budget, noting, as I did earlier this year, that you've made land transaction tax the most progressive tax in the UK, which I very much welcome. And I'm sure you'll acknowledge and agree, as I do, with the IPPR Commission on Economic Justice's recent report, and support its recommendations about tax, and the need to spread wealth and ownership across our economy.

I think it is important to recognise that, after eight and a half years of unnecessary and damaging austerity and deep cuts to our public services, you've shown clearly how you have used our budget to help make Wales a fairer place. As a result, you have given a wide package of public investment in health, social care, housing and transport. But this couldn't have been done without the fact that you secured £90 million as a result of the fiscal framework, which you negotiated, and the use of £125 million out of our Welsh reserves. And that is a decision you have to make, showing your determination to fund those bread-and-butter key public services in Wales, which we so cherish, and the people of Wales require.

I welcome the increase of £0.5 billion to the Welsh NHS, reaffirming your policy to support health and social care, benefiting local government, including the £50 million for social care. And I just would say and question whether that shows that the Welsh Government is still funding far in excess in relation to funding for social care in England, particularly in integrating health and social care.

On capital, I welcome the £35 million for the social housing grant, demonstrating the Welsh Government's commitment to ensuring that we have affordable and social housing for people in housing need. But I'd like to clarify the allocation of financial transactions allocations, because, earlier this year, I welcomed the Welsh Government's funding for credit unions, following the recent update in the Wales infrastructure plan announcements. We've already seen the benefits of using financial transaction capital in this way, promoting social justice, supporting our credit unions, helping them to meet the challenging capital asset ratio requirements, to underpin the viability of credit unions in Wales. And I hope this will continue.

I'd also like to raise the issue of the impact of Brexit on your budget this year. Independent research now brings the Brexit bill to £500 million a week, and rising, and your statement has highlighted the chief economist's analysis, showing the impact of Brexit on people and households in Wales. Can you confirm that we have to use allocations from our constrained budget to meet the costs of Brexit to our public purse? For the £50 million European Union transition fund, and the cost of Welsh Government engagement, at every level—political, and official—what is the impact of Brexit on all those whom we support and serve in Wales, highlighting the negative effect on your budget making and responsibilities?

I want to conclude with a question about wider powers. You have embraced your new powers, as outlined today. We have a fiscal framework—you've negotiated, you've managed resources, both revenue and capital, in a way Nye Bevan would have welcomed, in the way that you recognise priorities and needs, as the hallmark of socialism, and the fact that you've been able to do that, against the backdrop of eight and a half years of that lost £4 billion budget that could be going into our public services. But I'd like, finally, for you to update me on negotiations for the powers that we need to support our economy, and are supported cross party, through the Silk commission, and indeed now the Welsh Affairs Select Committee, looking at air passenger duty, which should be devolved to Wales, has been devolved to Scotland and has been devolved to Northern Ireland. What is the progress, Cabinet Secretary, on those negotiations? Diolch.