2. Will the Minister make a statement on the Welsh Government's draft budget for 2020-21? OAQ54865

8. Will the Minister make a statement on the Welsh Government's budget for 2020-21? OAQ54878

Llywydd, I understand you've given your permission for questions 2 and 8 to be grouped. 

The Welsh Government's draft budget follows the UK Government's one-year spending round, which does not turn the page on austerity. Our budget in 2020-21 will be £300 million less in real terms than 2010-11, but, nonetheless, the Welsh Government is investing in a more prosperous, more equal and greener Wales.

Well, thanks to the UK Government, of course, you've got an extra £600 million in the budget for 2021—2020, is that right—2020-21, compared to the previous financial year. And that gives you some great opportunities. One of those opportunities, of course, is to mitigate the impact of climate change, particularly around the coasts of Wales, which are at risk of flooding. Now, I do welcome the investment that has been made available for the Old Colwyn promenade in my constituency in recent months. It's not quite the amount that the local authority, Conwy County Borough Council, were looking for in order to do the proper job that is required in the longer term, but it at least will make some sort of difference to the flood risk in that particular community. But, of course, there are other parts of the north Wales coast that are also at risk, including in the Towyn and Kinmel Bay area, which, of course was devastated by floods 30 years ago this year. 

Can I ask specifically what resources you've made available for flood defences in the Welsh Government's budget for 2020-2021, and whether any of that which has been allocated is going to go to shore up those defences in the Towyn and Kinmel Bay area, so that we can prevent the sort of devastation we saw 30 years ago?

I'm grateful for the question, and, as I was able to set out in my statement on the draft budget yesterday, additional funding has been found for next year to provide funding to support communities at particular danger in terms of climate change and flooding, but that's on top of the additional funding that we're putting through our innovative housing programme for coastal risk management. And that's a programme worth £150 million over the course of this Assembly, which has been previously announced by my colleague the Minister for Environment and Rural Affairs. The schemes that we support are clearly the ones where the evidence base says the most need is there, but obviously I'd be happy to have conversations with Members if they have got particular concerns about areas within their own constituencies. 

I'm grateful to you for that earlier answer, Minister. In terms of the overall budget, during our conversation in the Finance Committee before Christmas, you confirmed that there would be a real-terms cut to the funds being available to support and to sustain bus services across the country. This is something that I think many of us will find very difficult, because a Government that is committed to climate change—and I think I welcomed yesterday the funds available for climate policy—and committed also to public transport, with the legislation that the First Minister referred to yesterday as well, means that we do need to be able to provide real support for public transport, and particularly public transport in communities such as those that I and yourself represent. There is already a great deal of funding going into active travel, which I support; there is a great deal of support going to rail, which I also support. But I'm increasingly concerned that the Government does not regard bus services as a sufficient priority. The fact that it's being cut in real terms in next year's budget will be a grave disappointment to many of us on all sides of this Chamber.

I'd therefore be extremely grateful, Minister, if you would consider reviewing this element of the budget to ensure that we do have the funds available to support and to sustain the bus services that link sometimes some very fragile communities with the services that they require. 

Well, obviously, there have been difficult decisions that have had to be made within individual portfolios in terms of whether or not they're able to increase funding for particular elements of their budgets or simply maintain those areas of spend. And, as Alun Davies quite rightly says, the spending of £25 million has been maintained rather than increased in terms of the bus services support grant. But, of course, the bus services support grant is only one of the ways in which we support bus services in Wales, and local authorities are generally responsible for deciding which services should be supported financially out of public money, based on their assessments of the local circumstances and needs. And local authorities very often do put in funding from their own revenue support grant in order to support those local bus services and community transport schemes as well. And, of course, every single local authority across Wales will have seen an increase in their budget in the next financial year, as set out in the draft budget, which I think is something to be recognised. But, alongside this, we support the bus and community network through our funding for Wales's TrawsCymru network of longer distance bus services, the all-Wales Traveline Cymru line, which provides information and journey planning, and the work of Bus Users Cymru, which represents passengers, and of course the Community Transport Association and the Traffic Commissioner for Wales's office as well. And, importantly, we are continuing to support the bus travel scheme for 16 to 21-year-olds, and of course our hugely popular bus travel scheme for older and disabled persons. And those are important of course, because they do increase demand for buses and help to keep those services sustainable in the longer term.

Mohammad Asghar.

Sorry.

It's okay. I'll move on.

It's not me, sorry.

Question 3, David Rowlands.