Transport for Wales

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Finance and Trefnydd – in the Senedd at 2:04 pm on 25 November 2020.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Rebecca Evans Rebecca Evans Labour 2:04, 25 November 2020

We would always love to give partners longer term certainty for their funding, and, certainly, it's something that the Chancellor has been able to offer schools and the NHS across the border in England, and also infrastructure projects, but hasn't been able to offer us that same kind of certainty. So, a one-year spending review, following another one-year spending round, which we had last year, just means the situation is very difficult in terms of providing any level of certainty.

So, yes, I do have discussions about the future funding arrangements with my colleague Ken Skates, and, obviously, he will be keen to have greater sight of funding across future years, and we are considering a model, actually, that might provide that, but I'm very aware that there would have to be a great deal of flexibility in that to allow us to respond to unforeseen situations. For example, earlier this year, we had to use maximum flexibility with Welsh Government budgets to reallocate funding in terms of responding to COVID-19. So, it's a discussion we're having in that context, and also, I have to say, in the context of the future of regional funding, but again, much depends on the outcome of the spending review today in terms of how much we'll be able to allocate to that.