After more than two decades of Labour budgets since devolution, Wales still has the lowest wage and employment levels and highest proportion of low-paid jobs in Britain and the lowest prosperity levels and long-term pay growth and highest poverty rate of all UK nations. We needed a budget to fix the foundations and build a more secure and prosperous economy for the future. Instead, what we got was a budget that papered over the cracks rather than rebuilding the foundations; a budget that shows this Welsh Government do not understand what went wrong in the last two decades or what is needed in the next. Welsh Government spending has increased by 4.2 per cent in cash terms to £22.3 billion, with 83 per cent of funding being provided by the UK Government. This has only been possible because of the prudent action taken by UK Government since 2010 to reduce inherited deficit. They could have gone faster, but that would have generated bigger cuts. They could have gone slower, but that would have generated bigger imposed cuts. After all, as anyone who's ever borrowed knows, borrowers borrow but lenders set the terms.

Whilst the future of the pandemic is uncertain, it is concerning that the Wales fiscal analysis report this month found not only that the Welsh Government has failed to allocate the £650 million provided by the UK Conservative Government on 15 February, instead rolling the funding over to next year, but also that, with additional consequentials from the UK budget and changes to projected devolved revenues, this means the Welsh Government currently has approximately £1.3 billion to allocate at future supplementary budgets. Now, we recognise that the Welsh Government must make provisions for contingencies. However, £1.3 billion is excessive, considering the Welsh Government knew for some time that additional funding was going to be made available. Although the Minister blames this on late notification by the UK Government, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury has made it clear he's been providing an upfront guarantee of additional resource funding to the Welsh Government for 2020-21 in response to the Welsh Government's request for certainty to help them plan their own support arrangements in Wales. The UK spending review last November also confirmed an additional £1.3 billion for the Welsh Government, bringing Barnett-based funding provided to the Welsh Government to £16.6 billion in 2021-22. This equates to around £123 per head for every £100 per head the UK Government spent in England on matters devolved in Wales. He also confirmed the Welsh Government can carry forward into 2021-22 any additional UK Government Barnett-based supplementary funding, but added that it is for the Welsh Government to determine how to make full use of this to deliver on devolved responsibilities.

Taxation changes in the budget are as regressive as they were before the pandemic struck. The tax on aspirational opportunity is back, with land transaction tax for homes purchased between £180,000 to £250,000 reverting to levels before the pandemic, at 3.5 per cent. My casework is showing that that's causing a massive problem to people, particularly those from Wales who want to move back from across the border in England. And business rates continue to be the highest in the UK. The Welsh Conservatives have been calling on this Labour Government to use the £650 million provided to them by the UK Government on 15 February to implement business rates relief for businesses in Wales. This Welsh Government claims it was not able to announce business rates relief sooner, because the UK Government's funding plans had not been announced. However, the Scottish Government has exposed this for the nonsense it is by announcing the abolition of business rates for the retail, leisure, hospitality and aviation industries on 15 February, using its £1.1 billion of consequential funding arising from the UK Government's coronavirus spending announced then. Funding to announce this policy was available, but this Labour Government characteristically chose once again to dither, delay and play buck-passing party politics, withholding much-needed clarity on funding for businesses in Wales.

Now the Office of Budget Responsibility forecasts that Wales's output will not recover to pre COVID-19 levels until months after the UK. The Welsh economy requires a radical change of direction, rather than more of the same stale economic policies that successive Labour Welsh Governments have produced. Welsh Conservatives have called on the Welsh Government to implement a recovery plan for Wales, not just to see Wales through the COVID-19 pandemic, but also to deliver the public services that Wales needs after over 20 years of successive Labour Welsh Government failures. It is therefore deeply concerning that this budget fails to deliver the financial revolution needed to provide a recovery plan for the Welsh economy and people.