Coronavirus and the Budget

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Finance and Trefnydd – in the Senedd at 3:23 pm on 10 February 2021.

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Photo of Rebecca Evans Rebecca Evans Labour 3:23, 10 February 2021

So, I'll be looking very carefully at what will be said at the UK Government's budget on 3 March in terms of what it might say in terms of providing support for a recovery effort and the reconstruction of the economy. I'm particularly keen to see what they have to say in terms of capital, because, of course, when we look at what the Chancellor said back in March, we were expecting to be receiving around £400 million of additional capital funding in next year's budget, and that would have been really something that we could use to motor forward with the reconstruction work, with the kind of infrastructure projects that will be necessary for the reconstruction effort. But, in the event, we actually received a cut to our capital budget, which was very unexpected. So, I'm wondering if the Chancellor might be taking the opportunity to announce additional funding in March. That's what I would hope to see. And then Welsh Government would obviously want to put in place those projects that actually we've had the opportunity to discuss right at the start of questions today with the spokesperson for Plaid Cymru, in terms of the infrastructure projects that we have in the pipeline. So, I think that would be one area where I would like to see much more action from the UK Government, and some more clarity in terms of funding for the future years.