8. Debate: The Second Supplementary Budget 2018-19

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:16 pm on 5 March 2019.

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Photo of Rebecca Evans Rebecca Evans Labour 4:16, 5 March 2019

Thank you. This second supplementary budget is a standard part of the annual financial management process and provides a final opportunity to amend budgetary plans for the current financial year as previously approved by this Assembly. I would like to thank the Finance Committee for their scrutiny of this second supplementary budget. I will respond to the committee's recommendations in due course. This budget is primarily a vehicle to codify the changes required as a result of in-year financial management. It aligns available resources with Government priorities, and the majority of changes to plans are primarily administrative in nature. It details adjustments as a result of transfers within MEGs; transfers between MEGs; allocations from reserves; changes to the overall departmental expenditure limit, including consequentials and other adjustments resulting from HM Treasury decisions; revisions to forecasts of devolved taxes; and the latest annually managed expenditure forecasts agreed with HM Treasury. The majority of the allocations formalised by this supplementary budget have already been announced by portfolio Ministers, and Members will have had the opportunity to scrutinise them.

The NHS remains a key priority for this Government. This budget includes revenue allocations of over £138 million from Welsh Government reserves to support the Welsh NHS. This includes funding for the NHS 'Agenda for Change' pay award and for doctors' and dentists' pay. A further £4 million of revenue has been allocated as part of the local government funding package announced last November to help relieve winter pressures for social services. This is a top-up to the £10 million that was provided in the previous year's draft budget. Extra resources are also allocated to alleviate some of the budgetary pressures being faced by local authorities implementing the teachers' pay award, and £16.2 million is allocated this year from the reserves in this respect.

Four million pounds revenue has been allocated for the Public Sector Broadband Aggregation to improve digital connectivity, linking more people with more jobs, goods, and services, and supporting the sustainability of rural communities.

Additional capital funding for local authorities of £100 million over three years was announced in the recent draft budget. Fifty million pounds of that funding is allocated in this supplementary budget. This funding gives local authorities the flexibility to spend as they deem appropriate to deliver Welsh Government and local priorities. Local authorities will also receive additional capital funding of £20 million in this supplementary budget to support road refurbishment as part of the £60 million package announced in the draft budget. This will help repair the damage caused by a series of hard winters and the very hot summer of 2018. Eighty-seven million pounds of general capital funds are allocated to the economy and transport portfolio. This includes this year's commitment to the local transport fund and expenditure on the M4.

Over £115 million has been allocated to support expenditure that is eligible for financial transaction funding. This includes £30 million to support a total £40 million investment to establish the Wales self-build scheme. This will offer a route into home ownership for people who want to stay in their local area, and provide opportunities for local SME construction companies and trades.

With tourism as a key economic driver in communities across the whole of Wales, I've allocated a total of £50 million, £40 million of which is financial transactions to establish a Wales tourism investment fund. This will help the continued growth of the industry in Wales and support the change to the investment model from the issuing of grants to a funding mix of repayable and non-repayable business finance.

This budget is also the first to make in-year changes to our devolved tax forecasts. As was reported, alongside the final budget, expected revenue from land transaction tax and landfill disposals tax for this year is £286 million—an inrease of £10 million since the first supplementary budget.

Llywydd, supplementary budgets are mainly administrative in nature. This budget details the various other adjustments to be made to our budget in this financial year, including changes to the Welsh block, revisions to forecasts of annually managed expenditure and other transfers between, and within, ministerial portfolios. I would like to thank the Finance Committee again for their scrutiny of the supplementary budget, and I ask Members to support it. Diolch.