Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Finance and Trefnydd – in the Senedd at 2:50 pm on 10 February 2021.
The Minister says she doesn't agree with my assessment. It's not my assessment; it's just a statement of where we're at. We're not the only ones advocating using the facilities that we have. In that article I mentioned, economist Gerry Holtham is quoted as saying that the Welsh Government should be able to manage its budget to ensure it makes far more use of its capital borrowing powers. He went on to say that late payment of capital receipts from the UK Government couldn’t really be used as an excuse and warned that a lack of appetite for capital borrowing could undermine the Welsh Government’s case for current levels being increased. Now, the Minister knows that Plaid Cymru and myself have been calling for greater fiscal powers during the course of this pandemic, as has she. She's told us a number of times that negotiations are currently ongoing with the UK Government over allowing greater fiscal flexibility. I've encouraged her to pursue that vigorously, but does the Minister agree that Welsh Government is undermining its own case by failing to use the full extent of the borrowing powers it already has?