The Block Grant

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 12:02 pm on 8 July 2020.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 12:02, 8 July 2020

Well, Llywydd, it's just important to say that the £857 million is repayable cash; it's not money that we can use to invest in Wales. And while I want to recognise the help we had through the Secretary of State and through the Treasury in securing that, let's put it in context: the Department of Health and Social Care in Whitehall has drawn down £25 billion of repayable cash from the contingencies fund, so we are rather at the small-change end of that market.

Llywydd, we will wait to see what the Chancellor of the Exchequer has to say today. Our stamp duty, our land transaction tax regime in Wales, already absolves far, far more people from paying that tax in Wales than would be the case across our border, so if the Member would want to regard that as a distortion, then it is a distortion very much in favour of his constituents in living this side of the border. But what we've learnt, Llywydd, over many years, is never to rely on the headlines that the Treasury trail in advance of any statement. We will wait to hear what the Chancellor of the Exchequer has to say. We will look at ways in which Wales will lose money as well as ways in which we may gain, and then the Cabinet here will come to a set of conclusions based in the round on the impact of any changes that may be announced today on the budget and on policies here in Wales.