In preparing my Christmas message to my constituents this week, I was pleased to report on the uplift to local government announced by the Cabinet Secretary on 20 November, which came as welcome news to Welsh local authorities, securing an additional package of £141.5 million in revenue and capital over the next three years. And the uplift to the draft budget secures these additional allocations of funding where they're most needed, where our public services are delivered in local government, despite the deep and unnecessary cuts to our budget by the UK Government over the past eight years, and the loss of £850 million for our public services as a result, with our budget 5 per cent lower in real terms. So, no wonder I welcomed a letter in my local paper The Barry Gem from a constituent in Barry with a headline to the council leader to stop denying political reality. My constituent had read a letter from the leader of the Conservative-controlled Vale of Glamorgan Council asking for more financial help from the Welsh Government. My constituent wrote, 'Is Councillor Thomas aware of which political party he's a member of and from where the financial starvation of local services is ultimately directed?'

Austerity's reckoning has been made clear by the UN rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Professor Philip Alston, laying bare the facts of the past nine years of cuts and austerity. He said:

'Damage is being done to the fabric of British society, to the sense of community…soon there will be nowhere for people in the lower-income groups to go.'

He cited the disappearance of sport centres, recreation spaces, public land, libraries and youth clubs. We welcomed Professor Alston to Wales and we accept his finding. It is the Welsh Government and local authorities that have had to mitigate against austerity.

In 2010, after the so-called emergency budget—that first budget of that coalition Government, when I was finance Minister—we were told to make cuts to revenue and capital. We refused to make those cuts. I recall speaking about providing a shield against those cuts. We didn't know that eight years on we would be still in that position, with even tougher choices to make to maintain and strengthen that shield. This week, we have yet more evidence of the adverse impact of austerity from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, which found that a third of children in a typical classroom of 30 are now living in poverty, as more working parents cannot make ends meet. So, I also welcome the vital commitment in this draft budget to double the pupil deprivation grant, to fund free school meals for 3,000 more pupils, £200 million for the council tax benefit scheme, scrapped in England, to mitigate against the cuts, to tackle poverty. And I welcome the measures taken by the Cabinet Secretary to secure fairer funding via the fiscal framework, and the use of our Welsh reserve and your ongoing commitment to our Welsh NHS. You've used all the tools and levers at your disposal. 

Now, I visited Cowbridge High Street on Small Business Saturday—Cowbridge was the rising star in the recent Great British High Street Awards—and told the chamber of trade chair, Kate Thomas, that £26 million for additional business rates relief was being allocated by the Welsh Government on top of the Wales-only targeted rates relief and transitional relief announced last year. And I do look forward to discussing with her the announcement you've made this afternoon, Cabinet Secretary, about expanding that targeted, bespoke Wales rates relief scheme for high streets. But I also praise Kate for her role in the high street as a community pharmacy, providing vital services to the local population of all means and circumstances. I took the opportunity on Saturday, as I do today, to praise the Welsh Government for keeping our free prescriptions, free breakfasts, free bus passes, helping to meet everyone's needs and reduce the inequality gap widening in the UK, but being addressed here in Wales. 

So, Cabinet Secretary, I'll back the draft budget and thank you for exercising your political will and determination to mitigate, provide a shield and use our new tax powers effectively and responsibly. And can I use the opportunity today to highlight a study by the University of Cambridge, which shows that austerity cuts are twice as deep in England as in the rest of Britain? The Cambridge study found that devolved powers have allowed Scottish and Welsh Governments to mitigate the harshest cuts experienced in parts of England where there is multiple deprivation. Maybe it's time for us to remember the line from the 1999 Catatonia song 'International Velvet', where Cerys Matthews sang, 'Every day when I wake up I thank the Lord I'm Welsh.' She said at the time:

'Hopefully by now people realise that Wales is brimmed full of talent and we're great people with massive brains.'

So, we need to continue our vigilance to protect our public services, to tackle poverty, and do what we can with our powers, our political will, and our brains, to continue to make that a reality. That's what I believe this draft budget will achieve.