The next item is the debate on the statement on the draft budget 2022-23. I call on the Minister for Finance and Local Government to make that statement and to move the motion—Rebecca Evans.

Diolch, Llywydd. I am pleased to make a statement on the 2022-23 draft budget laid on 20 December—the first multi-year budget since 2017.

As we stand at the start of a new year, I want to reflect on the circumstances that shaped our preparations, alongside looking forward to what this budget will deliver. The ongoing impacts of the UK leaving the EU, the pandemic, including the emergence of omicron, and the climate and nature emergency—never before have we faced such circumstances as these. We also have not escaped the long shadow of austerity. While we welcomed the multi-year settlement from the UK Government, it has not delivered for Wales. Our budget in 2024-25 will be nearly £3 billion lower than if it had increased in line with the economy since 2010-11. Between 2022-23 and 2024-25, our resource funding increases by less than half a per cent in real terms. Overall capital funding falls in cash terms in each year of the spending review period and is 11 per cent lower in 2024-25 than in 2021-22.

We also face a UK Government that has broken its promises and is intent on assaulting devolution, taking back powers and funding—a far cry from the rhetoric of levelling up and protecting the union. Under the UK Government's community renewal fund, Wales will receive only £46 million this year, compared to at least £375 million we would have received from EU structural funds from January 2021. The UK Government has also walked away from the industrial legacy of coal mines predating devolution. Yet, at the same time, we have much we can be positive about. I want to recognise the exceptional effort undertaken by everyone in responding to the challenges that we've faced. Despite the context, we have used every lever at our disposal to support not only the Wales of today, but shape a future that is stronger, fairer and greener than it was before.

Collaboration remains at the heart of our approach and we have always been clear that we don't have a monopoly on good ideas. We have entered into a co-operation agreement with Plaid Cymru, the priorities of which can clearly be seen in this budget. This includes additional investment in areas of shared priorities that value our rich heritage and our culture. I've also listened carefully to ideas put forward by Jane Dodds. While we don't have a formal agreement, I have agreed to establish a new £20 million fund, helping deliver vital reforms to services for looked-after children and care leavers. I'm also pleased to build on the constructive debate that we had before the summer recess, on 13 July. You'll see many of the priorities identified by colleagues in that debate reflected in our budget. These include prioritising funding for public services; funding housing and homelessness; funding to pay the real living wage for social care workers from April 2022; a significant investment in our response to the climate and nature emergency; recognising the role of education; and the need to support struggling families.

This budget will take Wales forward. I have delivered on my promise to prioritise funding for health, local authorities and social care. Over the next three years, we will continue to protect, rebuild and develop our public services. We are investing an additional £1.3 billion in our Welsh NHS to provide effective, high-quality and sustainable healthcare, and help recovery from the pandemic. We will stand by our local authorities through close to an additional three quarters of a billion pounds in the local government settlement, providing funding for schools, social care and other vital services. Alongside £60 million of direct additional funding, in 2022-23 alone we are providing over an additional £250 million for social services, including £180 million within the local government settlement to drive forward wider reforms to place it on a sustainable long-term footing.

The pandemic has also created a mental health crisis. In addition to the direct NHS investment, we will invest an additional £100 million targeted at mental health, including more than £10 million for children and young people, recognising the risks of the lasting and long-term impacts felt by our young people in Wales. 

The Deputy Presiding Officer (David Rees) took the Chair.

We'll build a stronger, greener economy, including over £110 million in additional non-domestic rates relief to businesses in the retail, leisure and hospitality sectors. We cannot and will not ignore the devastating and unequal impacts the pandemic has had on the people of Wales. We will continue to celebrate diversity and move to eliminate inequality in all of its forms, including by investing £10 million in our basic income pilot, to test the benefits of addressing poverty, unemployment, and improving wellbeing.

With individuals continuing to be affected by the pandemic and changes to universal credit, vulnerable people and families across Wales are turning to our discretionary assistance fund for additional support. We will invest an additional £7 million to meet this ongoing demand, providing support for those most in need.

Investing in early years and education remains one of our most powerful levers. We're investing an additional £320 million in our long-term education reforms, ensuring educational inequalities narrow and standards rise. This includes £90 million, in our shared priority with Plaid Cymru, to ensure an additional 196,000 children become eligible for free school meals in Wales.

We will build an economy based on the principles of fair work and sustainability, including an additional £61 million in our young person's guarantee, employability support and apprenticeship provision, helping people into employment so that they can earn a good income, and offering a route out of poverty and protection against it.

As a world we face a climate and nature emergency that demands urgent and radical responses, and Wales can play its part. I've delivered on my promise to use the new 10-year Wales infrastructure investment strategy to strengthen the link between infrastructure and tackling the climate and nature emergency. Through undertaking a fundamental zero-based review, I have published a new three-year infrastructure finance plan, underpinned by £8 billion of capital expenditure, including full use of our £450 million capital borrowing powers.

Alongside an additional £160 million revenue package, at the heart of this plan is a total £1.8 billion investment in our response to the climate and nature emergency. This includes £57 million to support the delivery of a national forest extending from the north of Wales to the south; £90 million to enhance green spaces at all scales and to ensure that we meet our existing and emerging international biodiversity responsibilities; £580 million to drive decarbonisation of our social housing stock; £100 million to be invested in tackling fuel poverty and providing warm homes; £90 million to deliver our renewable energy ambitions; and £102 million to provide additional flood protection for more than 45,000 homes, delivering nature-based solutions across Wales.

Unlike the UK Government, we will stand by our communities with a £44.4 million investment in coal-tip safety and support for their remediation, reclamation and repurposing. We're investing over £1 billion in farming and rural development, which will support environmental improvements, land management and our rural communities. This includes an additional £85 million revenue and a total £90 million capital, ring-fencing the farm funding we have received following the UK's departure from the EU.

Under our new infrastructure finance plan, we will also invest close to £1.6 billion capital in our housing priorities, including £1 billion to support our key commitment to build 20,000 low carbon homes for rent; £375 million to enable long-term investment in building safety, supporting work on long-term reform and remediation; over £1.3 billion capital to provide effective, high-quality and sustainable healthcare; £1 billion capital in education, Flying Start, childcare and early years provision, including £900 million to develop net-zero carbon schools and colleges, ensuring that they are in the right locations for local needs; £750 million in rail and bus provision, including delivery of the south Wales metro; and £210 million to support the Welsh language, and enable our tourism, sports and arts industries to thrive.

I am also using our devolved tax powers to help Wales recover, building on our distinct Welsh approach, including our commitment to make tax fairer through council tax reforms. We remain committed not to raise Welsh rates of income tax for as long as the economic impacts of the pandemic last. To minimise the risks associated with waste tourism, I will increase land disposals tax rates in line with forecasted levels of inflation. To support our investment in social housing, I will keep the higher residential rates of land transaction tax at 4 percentage points.

I have also published an updated budget improvement plan, outlining progress on our budget and tax processes, and we have remained focused on our longer term ambitions. We have undertaken the first multi-year spending review since 2015, engaged with other leading Governments internationally on embedding well-being. We are taking forward two new gender budgeting pilots and have established a new 10-year Wales infrastructure investment strategy, continuing our reforms on how we assess carbon impacts.

So, in closing, I am proud that this budget delivers on our values, providing the foundation for our recovery and moving us towards a stronger, fairer and greener Wales. Diolch.

Conservative spokesperson, Peter Fox.

Diolch, Deputy Llywydd. Can I thank you, Minister, for your statement today? The past two years have been some of the most difficult that we have experienced. The COVID-19 pandemic has affected us all, restrictions have curtailed our freedoms, vast swathes of our society have been forced to shut, and public services have come under huge pressure. Our front-line services, as well as our communities, still face significant challenges as we move through the next phase of the pandemic.

We are part of a wider union of nations, and it's by being part of this union that the Welsh Government has been in a position to support public services and businesses, as well as to respond to the pandemic. We've seen significant amounts of money flow into Wales from the UK Government since the pandemic began, and I very much welcome the additional £2.5 billion per year on average for the Welsh Government over the spending review period, as announced in the recent budget settlement, and the Wales fiscal analysis states that this equates to an average increase of 3.1 per cent a year each year in that period.

Within that context, then, Deputy Llywydd, I welcome the much-needed business rates holiday to help firms recover from the ongoing challenges of the pandemic, along with the uplift in funding for our local authorities who deliver so many key services in communities across Wales. I think all of us in this virtual Chamber will also welcome the additional £1.3 billion for the Welsh NHS over the next three years.

But, of course, Minister, the devil is always in the detail, and, as the First Minister mentioned earlier, there is always an opportunity cost to spending decisions, and we need to understand what these may be, and I'm sure that work will be going on through the committees over the next few weeks. For example, I've heard concerns from a number of business owners in my own constituency that the support offered by the economic resilience fund would not cover the significant loss of income that they incurred during the festive period, which, of course, usually helps many hospitality businesses through those quieter months at the start of the year. There are also concerns about the criteria having to be used to use the ERF, in which businesses need to have lost 60 per cent of their turnover to be eligible. So, even if a business was fortunate enough to not have been significantly impacted by restrictions, a smaller loss of income would still have a substantial impact, given the financial aspects of the past two years.

The Federation of Small Businesses Wales is also calling on Welsh Government to review and increase the funding available to support businesses in the sector hit by COVID restrictions introduced over the festive period. They have stated that they are concerned by the, I quote,

'apparent open-ended nature of the existing restrictions. It is therefore important that Welsh Government outlines the conditions under which restrictions on Welsh businesses might be eased to allow them to plan for the future.'

Minister, could you assure businesses across Wales that the Welsh Government will provide urgent additional support over and above what had been announced in the budget, should the current devastating restrictions continue?

Aside from business support, we also need to look at ways of supporting our local and national economies, and I think that this budget could have done far more in this regard. Our town centres will be provided with an extra £100 million capital over the budget period, but I question whether this fund will be enough to finally start reversing the long-term decline of the high street and to help them adapt to changing consumer habits that have been exacerbated over the pandemic. I also could not find much mention of how Welsh Government will invest in Welsh producers and manufacturers to export more of their goods and services abroad and to help enhance the 'Made in Wales' brand. I would appreciate some more information on this, if possible, Minister.

Then there's the increase in funding for the NHS. From what I'm aware, close to £900 million of the total funding is to be allocated in the 2022-23 financial year. Whilst much needed, and we welcome that, this would leave just £400 million to be allocated over the remaining two years, meaning health boards may be tempted to hold back some of the original funding to fill any anticipated shortfalls in future budgets. Minister, could I ask how decisions on how to allocate this funding were made, and whether you can provide hospitals and health boards with the funding certainty they need in the medium to long term? I'm also disappointed to note that the introduction of the regional surgical hubs to tackle the NHS waiting list backlog, as previously called for by the Conservatives, was not part of the budget. Would you consider working with us, Minister, to look into how we can speed up access to treatment, using some of your unallocated funding to introduce a £30 million GP access plan so more patients can see their GP and help to reduce the strain on hospitals? 

Now, despite the positive settlement for councils, this has to be viewed within the wider context. This accommodates the continued impacts that will no longer be met by the COVID hardship fund, significant pressures faced across social care, Welsh Government policy costs and inflationary pressures. Much of this additional funding will already be swallowed up, leaving little room for councils to manoeuvre. Councils also need greater clarity on specific grant funding streams for next year to help with financial planning, as well as clarity on additional grant funding that they could expect to see coming before the end of March. Minister, would you be able to give more clarity in that regard?

I've also heard of some concerns that the current public highways refurbishment grant may be removed, leaving councils concerned as to how they will pay for the upkeep of already creaking road networks. I acknowledge your Government's position on new road building, but the fact is that we still need roads and they still need to be maintained by councils. Could you clarify this situation, Minister, and state whether it is your intention to provide additional funds for road maintenance, as the Government has previously done?

Moreover, continuing pressure will mean that councils will still have to rely on hard-working taxpayers to supplement their budgets through council tax. Given the financial pressures facing families, which we talked about earlier today, will the Government consider providing additional funding to councils—I mean above and beyond what has been announced—to enable councils to freeze council tax for two years and relieve pressure on families? You have the ability to do this, if you wish.

Schools, too, have been hard hit during the pandemic and continued disruption risks further hindering our young people. I note that the budget allocates a further £320 million for education recovery and reform, which is to be welcomed. However, this funding is again spread over the next three financial years, so I wonder whether funding will be spread too thinly and so fall short in helping schools and young people to recover from the impact of the pandemic.

Furthermore, I note that the budget includes an additional £64.5 million up to 2024-25 to support schools on a variety of things, such as additional learning needs, supporting the continuation of the recruit, recover and raise standards programme, and supporting learner well-being. I think it would be useful to have a breakdown of the specific allocations within this funding package, as well as to understand whether any additional funding is to be made available to schools to support the recruitment of permanent teaching staff once the RRRS programme comes to an end. It's clear that to help raise standards and support learners to catch up with their learning, we need to reverse the decline in the number of teachers in Wales. To reiterate this point, according to the most recent Education Workforce Council statistics, the number of teachers registered in Wales has declined by 10.3 per cent between 2011 and 2021, and this, quite clearly, is not sustainable.

Finally, climate change represents a significant challenge as we move through this decade and beyond. According to recent estimates from the UK Committee on Climate Change, around £4.2 billion of investment is needed during the second carbon budget between 2021 and 2025, yet your budget only is allocating £1.8 billion of capital and £160 million of revenue in green investment over the next three years. Minister, are you confident that this level of investment will deliver the changes we need to transform Wales into a low-carbon society? And I think we need more clarity around the elements linked to flood defences. Because we’re heading to that time of year where who knows what could happen, and I think there is a lack of clarity on what you want to do around flooding, and we know what we need to see happen.

In summary, Deputy Llywydd, I think there are things that we can welcome in this budget. The additional funding provided by the UK Government really does highlight the importance of being part of a strong union. But we really need this budget to deliver on what it is setting out to achieve—a stronger, fairer and greener Wales. This is something that previous Governments, Welsh Governments, have often missed the mark on. It is up to this Government to show that it can deliver real change for the people of Wales, and to build a more prosperous, aspirational nation. And if you can’t do that, there‘s certainly a party in this Senedd that can. Thank you, Deputy Llywydd.

Plaid Cymru spokesperson, Llyr Gruffydd.

Thank you very much, Dirprwy Lywydd, and thank you for the opportunity to contribute to this debate on the statement on the Welsh draft budget. The Minister has described this budget—and we’ve just heard the Conservative spokesperson repeating that—as a budget that will create a fairer, greener and stronger Wales. But I will go further and say that, thanks to Plaid Cymru, this budget will create an even fairer Wales, an even greener Wales and an even stronger Wales. From free school meals for all primary pupils to the extension of free childcare to all two-year-olds, to tackling the housing crisis and far, far more, the commitments that Plaid Cymru has secured as part of the co-operation agreement with the Welsh Government will be transformational, particularly for some of our poorest households. The investment in this budget to implement those radical policies from the co-operation agreement are ones that we support, of course, because, as I say, they will contribute a great deal to changing the lives of people for the better, wherever you are in Wales.

Beyond what’s in the agreement, of course, we, like all other Members of the Senedd, have a job of work to do in scrutinising the rest of the budget and to ensure that it does deliver what is needed and that it has the most positive impact possible under the circumstances we find ourselves in. I say that not only because COVID is casting a shadow over everything, and not only because leaving the European Union is still having an impact on the Welsh economy, or because the high levels of inflation and increases in living costs will all have a significant impact on the work of Government, on public services and on the lives of families across Wales, but I am talking too about the inadequacy of the settlement from the UK Government.

Now, as we’ve heard on a number of occasions, and the Minister echoed this in her statement, if the budget coming to Wales had increased in line with the size of the UK economy since 2010, then Wales would have an additional £3 billion in the draft budget before us today. In a budget of the scale of ours, £3 billion is a very significant sum indeed. Instead of that, of course, and unlike Scotland and Northern Ireland, Wales has to foot the bill for projects such as HS2, which is being built entirely outwith Wales and to the disadvantage of the Welsh economy. The cruel cuts by the Prime Minister to universal credit have taken over £0.25 billion out of the Welsh economy and it will leave more than 0.25 million Welsh families facing being plunged into poverty. The Conservatives have broken their promises on European funding too. The Minister mentioned the £46 million that we have received from the community renewal fund, where of course we would have received £375 million were we still in the European Union. Despite their pledge in Westminster that Wales wouldn't be a penny worse off, the budget for agricultural support is £137 million less this year, and it will be £106 million short next year.

So, although the settlement at first sight looks quite positive, the truth of the matter is it is far more challenging than it appears. By the end of the third year, the revenue budget will only be up by 0.5 per cent in real terms, and the capital budget will have fallen by around 11 per cent.

Now, the profile of the budget is also challenging, with the increase higher in the first years, or the first year specifically. That means that although year 1 is very positive, it's a different story in following years. The result of that is that the health budget, for example, will increase by 8 per cent in the first year, but then only 0.8 per cent in the second year and 0.3 per cent in the third year. The story is similar for local authorities and other budgets too. So, whilst the 2022-23 budget is challenging for the reasons I outlined earlier, the budgets for 2023-24 and 2024-25 will be even more challenging.

Now, I welcome the fact that the Welsh Government intends to use its capital borrowing powers in full in these years—something that Plaid Cymru has been calling for for some time—in order to invest in improving infrastructure and generating growth in the Welsh economy. It's about time that that happened, if I may say so.

I want to say a few words about the local authority settlement, because the funding of local authorities was under substantial pressure prior to the pandemic, with the Wales Governance Centre suggesting that per capita expenditure in 2019-20 was 9.4 per cent lower than it was a decade earlier. Those challenges have intensified over the past two years. The cost of services has increased as local authorities responded heroically to the need to undertake additional responsibilities as a result of COVID, including things such as administering grant payments to businesses, expanding homelessness support, test and trace, and so on and so forth, whilst, simultaneously, important revenue sources were lost from various sources such as leisure and cultural services.

As things stand at the moment, many of those challenges persist. Now, we can only welcome the 9.4 per cent increase for local authorities in this draft budget, of course, but when you realise that the increase replaces things such as the hardship fund for local authorities, and that other elements such as changes to homelessness funding and questions on road funding, as we heard earlier, and changes to the social care workforce, all have to come out of the settlement as well as the pay increase in the pipeline, as well as higher energy costs, high inflation, and so on and so forth, then suddenly it doesn't look so generous. Once again, it appears that in the second and third year we will see the greatest challenges in terms of local authorities as they are squeezed yet further.

So, whilst there is much in this budget that we do welcome, and mainly, as I say, the resources allocated for those radical and far-reaching policies in the co-operation agreement, there is more to the budget than that, and we, like other parties, will be scrutinising the budget in detail, mainly through committee work over the ensuing weeks, as is the right and responsibility of all Members of this Senedd.

Our spending review set up an unadjusted Welsh block grant from the Treasury through to 2024-25. This three-year budget is something many of us have been calling for for a very long time, and allows for longer term planning.

Wales Fiscal Analysis estimate that, excluding COVID funding, the core budget for annual day-to-day expenditure by the Welsh Government will increase by £2.9 billion by 2024-25 compared to 2021-22, the equivalent of an approximate 3.1 per cent a year over the spending review period in money terms. That was something that Peter Fox said earlier. But—there's always a 'but'—if inflation is taken into account, this is at best a standstill budget. We've seen huge increases recently in inflation. That's bound to impact on the public sector. Higher costs of delivering services, higher wages and also much higher energy costs—local authorities and the public sector are not immune to this.

On housing proposed expenditure, I'm very pleased with the planned investment for the next three years in the social housing grant, pleased to see the housing support grant maintained at its current level, but I would prefer to see an inflationary increase across three years to support the cost of living increases in staff pay. The indicative budget is flat across three years, so in real terms would be something like a 10 per cent reduction.

Unfortunately, we will not be able to discuss alternative budgets because neither Plaid Cymru nor the Conservatives are either able or willing to create alternatives. The most recent estimate of tax and spend in Wales was produced in the 'Wales' Fiscal Future' report, produced by Cardiff University's Wales Governance Centre in March 2020, which is not considered to be an anti-Welsh nationalist or anti-Plaid Cymru group. And the report estimated that, in 2018-19, Wales raised £29.5 billion in taxes and had £43 billion spent on it by the Welsh and UK Governments, meaning that £13.5 billion more was spent on Wales than was raised by Welsh taxes.

I normally ask at this time if Plaid Cymru would like to produce a budget for an independent Wales, and the answer has always been 'yes', but I've never seen one. This year, I'll ask a different question: do they intend in an independent Wales to abolish the NHS, abolish pensions, increase taxes by 46 per cent, or a combination of cuts to all services and substantial increases, or have they got a magic money tree? Also, Plaid Cymru's opposition to bypasses is well known, except it works outside the area represented by their leader, where Llandeilo is about to get its second bypass when many other places haven't had a first. 

The Conservative policy is easy to understand: cut taxes and hold no increase in expenditure. Put simply, it does not work. If the Conservatives want to reduce expenditure, let them tell the people where. Their big idea of abolishing free prescriptions did not last long during the Senedd election campaign after they started to talk to focus groups and to the electorate in general. 

As important as the size of the budget is how it is spent. I would try and convince the Welsh Government to apply the five Es test to expenditure. Effectiveness: is the expenditure effective in achieving the Government's aim? Efficiency: is the expenditure the most efficient use of the resources? Equity: is it fair to all parts of Wales, not necessarily in one year but across a period of time? Major roadworks on the Heads of the Valleys road or the A55 can distort expenditure. Equality: does everyone get treated equally? Is the expenditure skewed to one or more groups of people or away from others? And, finally, the environment: is the budget going to improve the environment, reduce our carbon footprint and improve biodiversity?

On taxation, I've always opposed varying income tax. If you cut it, you'll have a shortfall in income. If you increase it, you upset the electorate; people who can use an England address will and therefore it's very unlikely to raise the amount predicted. What I would again call for is the return of business rates to local authority control. If we're talking about devolution, and everybody here or nearly everybody here is in favour of devolution, devolution cannot stop in Cardiff. We have to devolve more powers and more money, and more budgetary ability to raise money to local authorities.

In conclusion, the budget is assuming cost increases are controlled outside core expenditure—a static budget, but having got used to annual cuts, it is definitely a step in the right direction. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer.

Can I start by thanking the Minister for the open and collaborative way she and her officials have taken in working with me in recent months? Thank you. Diolch yn fawr iawn. 

I agree wholeheartedly with her when she said that the Senedd has worked at its best and achieved most when parties across the Chamber have worked together. The Welsh Liberal Democrats' priority at the election was a fair and green recovery following the pandemic; ensuring our NHS and care services were supported; providing opportunities for children and young people; supporting workers and small business; and putting the climate crisis at the heart of our economy. I am pleased to see elements of this draft budget that reflect those aims, and I'm delighted that, through discussions over recent months about a children and young people's budget, the Welsh Liberal Democrats have been able to secure £20 million to radically reform services for care-experienced children and young people. And I'm pleased to see additional funding for mental health services included in the budget as well.

This must be a budget that carefully balances the immediate challenges we face, but that looks at the future we want to create for our planet and for the next generation: a kinder, fairer, greener and more just Wales. And, finally, I look forward to the remainder of this budget process. Diolch, Gweinidog; diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd.

I wish everybody a happy new year and a healthy 2022.

While there is much to be welcomed in this budget, it unfortunately does little to address the massive crisis facing social care in Wales. This budget will put into effect the Welsh Government's answer to the recruitment crisis facing the care sector, namely a wage of £9.90 per hour. But unfortunately, this is too little, too late, as a couple of days ago the UK's second biggest supermarket chain, Sainsbury's, announced that they are about to pay a minimum wage of £10 an hour, and we've already seen Lidl increase their minimum wage to £10.10 per hour. How can we justify paying those caring for our most vulnerable less money than somebody working in a supermarket? And I've recently been criticised for making this comparison, but I'm not denigrating those providing a valuable service in keeping our nation fed, but simply pointing out the perversity of paying people working in the care sector less than supermarket workers.

A year ago, when my party were drawing up our policy platform, when we committed to paying a minimum of £10 per hour to care staff, this was well above the minimum wage, and part of a package aimed at making the caring profession an attractive career prospect for young people. We can't continue to exploit those whose care and compassion drives them to dedicate their lives to caring for others. Adequate pay and conditions for care staff should have been implemented on day one of this sixth Senedd, but thanks to continued dither and delay, we are reaping the whirlwind. We have a recruitment crisis in care and it's having a clear and demonstrated effect on our NHS, as one in six NHS beds are occupied by patients who are medically able to be discharged but cannot be sent home because of the lack of a care package—a care package that cannot be provided because of a lack of care staff. And this has driven some local health boards to directly employ care staff, which in turn has resulted in poaching staff from the care sector.

Sadly, this budget does little to address these issues. It will do nothing to address the recruitment crisis, and the additional moneys for social care are going to be pumped into the integrated care fund—a fund that the Auditor General for Wales states is not meeting its potential. He said, and I quote,

'aspects of the way the fund has been managed at national, regional and project levels have limited its potential to date. There is little evidence of successful projects yet being mainstreamed and funded as part of public bodies' core service delivery.'

So it shows that, yes, once again, this Welsh Government is pinning its hopes on the fund. The integration of health and care shouldn't still be reliant on pilot projects; social care should not be treated as the junior partner in this deal. And once again, vast sums have been pumped into secondary care, into the NHS black hole. But unless we address the issues in social care and provide the necessary funding, our waiting lists will continue to grow, as beds continue to fill up with patients needing social care and not medical care. So, I urge the finance Minister to rethink and provide greater funding for social care. Diolch yn fawr.

Diolch, Minister, for this budget update this afternoon. I'm speaking this afternoon as one of the regional Members for South Wales East. I welcome the extra clarity your statement brings, because it allows the Senedd to provide the rigorous and focused scrutiny that is required for each and every Welsh Government budget. I'd appreciate further detail on a couple of important matters.

Since my election, I have championed an improved funding settlement for Tŷ Hafan and Tŷ Gobaith—the two children's hospices in Wales. The amazing people behind both hospices crave an improved funding settlement to allow them to do more for the vulnerable children and families they care for. We have already established that their state funding pales in comparison to children's hospices in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. When I raised this matter in the Siambr last summer, the health Minister said a report had been commissioned and would be reporting back in the autumn. Well, autumn has since come and gone, and we have heard nothing publicly. I understand there have been some positive indications about improved funding for children's hospices in Wales, but, as yet, nothing on the record. Can you therefore provide an update with regard to the voluntary hospices funding review and what additional funding will be made available to Tŷ Hafan and Tŷ Gobaith within the budget for 2022-23?

Finally, can you tell me if the budget includes enough of a commitment to recovery services for children? A commitment to invest in early years interventions such as Flying Start is welcome, as is the focus on social care. However, I understand there is a concern from experts in the field, such as NSPCC Cymru, that recovery services for children who have already experienced abuse, neglect or trauma have not always been sustainably funded. Back in November, you reassured the Senedd that Welsh Government will recognise the importance of children's social services and also children's mental health as well. I'm seeking a commitment today that recovery services for children continue to be available to the child for as long as they are needed. Diolch yn fawr.

I would like to welcome this draft budget, which outlines continued support for local authorities as they continue to provide services at the forefront of the pandemic. I understand that it's more generous than what has been allocated for English councils by UK Government, and the fact that it is free from hypothecation, as in Scotland, is most welcome.

However, I'd like to outline some concerns I have about the lack of funding outlined for the maintenance of existing highways maintained by local authorities. The Welsh Local Government Association have been told there will be no continuation of the much valued grant of £20 million and that road maintenance funding is being reinvested into active travel. I was told in response to my question in the Senedd that funding from the pause in the building of new roads would be reinvested in active travel and the maintenance of existing roads. In these challenging financial times, it's essential that we do not neglect the maintenance of our highways. Following 10 years of UK austerity and cuts to public service funding, a 2020 county surveyor survey estimated that a backlog of deferred highway asset maintenance of more than £1.6 billion currently exists.

In addition to constant use and ageing, our assets are undergoing pressure from the effects of climate change. The heavy rainfall we are experiencing washes away road surfaces, creates potholes, sunken gullies and fills drains with debris that then have to be constantly emptied to be effective. Recent additional Government grant funding has provided authorities with the opportunity to arrest deterioration of some, but not all the highway assets. It was really much valued, that £20 million each year over the last three years. A steady state investment is required annually to keep the assets in their current condition. It's estimated, just to keep them in their current state, carriageways require £65 million per annum, footways £9 million, and structures including bridges £46 million per annum. These structures, such as bridges, are being impacted greatly by flooding and climate change. So, they really need this investment. Allowing assets to deteriorate to this level where replacement is the only option risks incurring avoidable costs in the future, and the potential for some assets to fail at short notice, which is happening now, such as a new bridge—. There's a bridge in Denbighshire and there have been landslides in Flintshire. Many local authorities have been impacted. All this will necessitate expensive reactive repair, closure and, in extreme instances, increased user risk.

I notice that trunk road agencies continue to be comparatively well funded, as they have again in this budget, but most of our highway network falls to local authorities. Motorways and dual carriageways account for a very small percentage of our infrastructure across Wales. Our roads need to be maintained so they continue to be available for use by pedestrians, cyclists, public transport, motorists and businesses. It's impossible to provide dedicated cycle routes on the majority of our highways. Cyclists need to use the edge of roads, which are made dangerous by potholes and blocked gullies. These also cause increased wear of tyres, which are one of the greatest pollutants and cause exacerbation to climate change as well, and pollution in our water courses. Going forward, I would like to see significant and continued Welsh Government investment in our roads network to ensure that they are fit for purpose. They are our biggest assets. Thank you.

In welcoming the budget statement and this debate, I have to put on record my disappointment when it comes to our climate change agenda. Members will be well aware of my concerns raised in the Senedd that the Welsh Government continues to place long-term arrangements for environmental governance on the back burner, thereby squandering this opportunity for Wales to be a world leader in environmental green protections. Indeed, whilst Natural England is receiving a 47 per cent increase in UK Government funding, data provided by Wales Environment Link, via their budgetary consultation submission, shows that Natural Resources Wales's funding has decreased by 35 per cent between 2013 and 2020. Over the same period, prosecutions on environmental offences have reduced by 61 per cent, with WEL members rightly raising concerns about an apparent lack of capacity for robust monitoring programmes and management of protected sites. According to my own analysis, NRW is now set to receive a real-terms cut in funding, with them remaining at £69.7 million for 2022-23. So, to protect our green spaces, I ask the Minister to review this situation, and look to use whatever resources are available to introduce a framework for a long-term independent office for environment protection. 

On the issue of budgetary analysis, I also notice concerns regarding the fact that the budget lines for marine and fisheries often become entangled. With marine conservation being a central concern for many residents along the coast here, in north Wales, the present level of difficulty in trying to identify what level of budget is being provided for marine biodiversity or habitat restoration, compared to funds available for supporting the fishing industry—. It's not there. So, in the name of transparency, would the Minister look to provide an additional breakdown so that this can be scrutinised more easily? 

Elsewhere, I recognise that an unspecified amount will go towards establishing a publicly owned energy company. Given the issues encountered by the Bristol Energy company, whereby the failing asset was sold for £14 million, which was far less than the £36.5 million invested by Bristol City Council, perhaps this money would be better spent establishing a microgrid trial in north Wales. Decision makers in Cardiff Bay have long acknowledged that Wales continues to experience a grid capacity crisis, which is causing an unnecessary trip in the system, preventing meaningful and long-term progress in the nation's green industrial revolution. Fostering such a microgrid trial in north Wales would be in line with the north Wales energy strategy. So, I ask that the Minister again looks at this budget so that our shared interest in such progress can be recognised with the resource it deserves. 

Finally, I do find it concerning that the budget seeks to provide £1 million in revenue funding to establish a national construction company that will, in effect, compete with our hard-working property developers. From conversations with the industry, I know that the private sector stands ready to provide housing and generate employment opportunities. However, as my own stakeholder group can attest, we know that 10,000 new homes are being blocked via NRW's troubling guidance on phosphates. The Minister for Climate Change needs to clarify what resources will the Welsh Government be setting aside to unplug the block on housebuilding throughout Wales. Having declared a climate emergency well over two years ago now, one would have thought by now that this budget would have reflected the Welsh Government's priorities in terms of climate change and our carbon outputs. Clearly, when reading through it, it is not very evident at all that this focus is as meaningful as it should be. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. 

The people of Islwyn will welcome this important statement today, and this budget will take Wales forward. As the Minister noted, we have in no way escaped the years of Tory austerity before this pandemic hit. The lack of fair funding for Wales, pernicious over the last decade, and the lack of UK infrastructural spend in Wales, including the lack of HS2 consequentials, has been shocking and has consequences, as did the scrapping of the UK pandemic preparedness group. COVID-19 has challenged and continues to challenge every nation on earth. The Welsh Government is therefore both fiscally and morally right to prioritise funding for our public services. It is right to provide an additional £1.3 billion to our heroic Welsh NHS and an additional £0.75 billion to our hard-working local authorities in the local government settlement. With a strong collaborative approach in our policy and a strong budget investment in education, transport and climate, with fairer, greener, nature-based solutions, a made-in-Wales approach for—

Rhianon, can I ask you to stop a second? We've lost your video. We just want to make sure that it's operational at your end. 

Yes, it is. We're having problems with the video. It has to be intermittently put back on. I've almost finished. If I can just come to my question, Deputy Presiding Officer. 

Okay. As long as you're aware the video is not working for us. Okay?

That's absolutely fine. It's doing that, and they're trying to sort it. 

So, Minister, how do you explain, then, to my constituents how it is that Wales will only receive £46 million this year from the UK Government's community renewal fund, on an ad-hoc, non-transparent basis, compared to the £375 million that we would have received from EU structural funds from January 2021? That's a loss of £329 million, when we were told we would receive not a penny less. Thank you. 

Thank you to the Minister for bringing forward this budget. 

Firstly, as Members are aware, I'm extremely proud of what the co-operation agreement between Plaid Cymru and the Welsh Government seeks to achieve, especially when it comes to free school meals. Extending free school meals to all primary school pupils is the first step to achieving universal free school meals, and that will go a long way to ensuring that kids from all backgrounds are guaranteed nutritious food as part of their education.

We do have some distance to go yet, but if I can focus on free school meals for all primary school children for now, I hope the Government would give some consideration to front-loading financial support in this budget for free school meals so that we can see the benefits of this policy sooner rather than later. The sooner we can get this policy implemented across Wales, the better off people will be. Ideally, I would like to see this policy fully implemented in 2022.

I'd also be interested to learn if the provision for providing free school meals through the school holiday period is still accounted for in the budget. I can't stress enough how much of a lifeline this is for families over the holiday period, when costs rise significantly for families with children, and this becomes even more important as we begin to see a cost-of-living crisis emerge.

And finally on free school meals, but on a wider point of policy, does the Government account for the positive impacts of policies such as free school meals and the subsequent savings that are made in other areas, such as health and the economy, when putting together their budget? 

I'm grateful to the Minister for her statement opening this debate. I noticed that the Minister seems to be making a great deal of notes during this debate. She's always welcome, of course, whenever we're debating these things, but I'm sure she's been as shocked as I am during this debate that, having spent 10 years listening to Tories lecture us on austerity, lecture us on being very careful with the public purse and the rest of it, we've just had a number of Tory speakers standing up and spending a million quid with every breath they take. We've had Gareth Davies demanding more money for investing in social services. I tend to agree with him, as it happens, but it's his Government that's been cutting it in the first place, of course. Janet Finch-Saunders bemoans the lack of investment in climate change when she has a Government that barely believes in it in Westminster and has certainly cut back on investment on the other side of the border. And poor old Peter Fox, of course, wants to spend money on everything, just in case. So we have had a Conservative debate this afternoon that has been entirely rooted in spending public money that they themselves are involved in cutting. There is a word for that. I won't test your patience, Deputy Presiding Officer, this afternoon, but there is a word for that, and it was used quite freely in Westminster at lunchtime.

Let me say this: I think in terms of the debates that we have on our budgets in Wales, we need to focus more on income than on expenditure. Anybody can spend money. Anybody can stand up and demand more funding for every subject under the sun. I welcome the conversations that the Government has had with Plaid Cymru and with the Liberal Democrats. I see the influence of both those parties on this budget, and I think it's something to be welcomed. I also notice that the contributions from Jane Dodds and from Plaid Cymru Members this afternoon have been far more rooted in reality and rooted in delivery than the fantasies we've heard from Conservative Members. But let me say this in terms of not spending, but raising funds: I'd like to understand more from the Minister how she is looking at her budgets over the coming years. Because it's fake, of course, for the Conservatives to argue that this is the most generous spending agreement or settlement that we've ever had. It's the easiest thing in the world to look at the cash numbers and say this is more than last year, and that's more than the year before. That's basic arithmetic. It's not the reality, though, and it's not the reality that we've had over the last decade. I remember Peter Fox very well as a local government leader; I don't remember him once telling me that he would prefer to be an English local government leader than a Welsh local government leader when he was dancing a very neat little dance around the words of Andrew R.T. Davies in the Chamber being thrown back at him in other meetings. But I don't blame him for that either.

But let me say this: Brexit is having a ferocious impact on our public finances. It's already been mentioned, and Rhianon Passmore spoke about the utter betrayal of Welsh communities; £375 million the Secretary of State promised would be maintained at a Finance Committee last year—he made that commitment on the record to Members here, and Members will remember that. It was to the External Affairs and Additional Legislation Committee, actually; I think the Deputy Presiding Officer was in the Chair during that meeting. We've received £46 million. Either he was seeking to mislead us at the time, or he's misled us since then. Since we've now got a Prime Minister who misleads people every minute of every day, we don't know the answer to that question, but what we do know is that we've been misled, that people up and down Wales have been deeply misled, and that public finances are much the worse for that. But we also know that Brexit is reducing our gross domestic product by an average of 4 per cent. That's going to have a direct impact, of course, on our tax take and the ability of the Welsh Government to meet its commitments in terms of taxation, and I'd like to understand how the Minister is seeking to address that. 

I also want to raise the issue of rail investment. We've seen again the Tories not investing in Wales. Peter Fox finished his opening contribution by saying that this budget recognises the place of Wales in a strong union. What it actually does is recognise the weakness of Wales in a union that doesn't give a damn about Wales. That's what it really does. If you look at the—. Well, Janet can shake her head, but the numbers speak for themselves. We are not seeing the investment in rail infrastructure that we are seeing in Scotland. We are not seeing the infrastructure investments in Wales that we're seeing across the border in England, and why is that? It's because a Tory Government in Westminster doesn't want to spend the money in Wales. Simple as that. I'm happy to take an intervention if any of those Members wish to do so.  

You haven't got the time to do so, Alun. 

I haven't got the time, so I won't test your patience this afternoon, but I hope that the Minister in replying will be able to address some of the issues around how we raise funds in Wales, and how we're able to better marshal those funds in order to achieve the objectives that I think she set out, and with which I completely agree. 

Thank you, Minister, for bringing forward today's statement on the draft budget. Just a brief reminder at this point that I'm still a member of Conwy County Borough Council, as my register of interest shows.

Like many Members, just before Christmas, while I was doing my best to ensure Father Christmas was able to arrive safe and well, I too was eagerly awaiting for the draft budget to be released and to see what would be spent where, and the effects that this would have. As my colleague Peter Fox excellently outlined in his contribution, whilst acknowledging the pressures caused by the pandemic, despite Mr Davies's concerns that some of us Conservatives aren't perhaps conservative enough, this budget must be invested wisely to deliver on the priorities of working people, with a laser-like focus on creating better paid jobs and delivering vital public services.

As a Minister, you've outlined yourself something that I've continuously raised with you during this pandemic, which is that councils have gone above and beyond in providing vital services to local people. Indeed, this sentiment has been repeated by Members across parties today, including Mr Hedges and Mr Gruffydd as well in their contributions. So, it will come as no surprise today that I will focus my brief contribution on local government, and specifically the local government settlement. I know that many councils up and down Wales, including the Welsh Local Government Association, have welcomed the local government settlement within this budget—an increase of 9.4 per cent on a like-for-like basis compared to the current year. Of course, as an ex-council leader, I too would have liked to have seen this during my time leading a council.

It is fair, though, also to say that this local government settlement has come after years and years of underfunding to councils, especially those further north and perhaps rural councils, which have had significant cuts over that time. Because of this, and despite the increase in funding, it looks like many councils will still have to raise council tax this year to cover their pressures. But more funding to councils this year could have alleviated this issue. It's now likely that increased pressure will be put on local residents through higher taxation, even though they have been hit hard during this COVID-19 pandemic. With this context in mind, I would like to raise just three really brief points, Deputy Presiding Officer.

First, linked to these pressures, it's worth highlighting the financial demands that councils are likely to face over the next three years. This has been estimated at over £1 billion of increased pressures. And, Minister, as your statement noted, the funding to cover this over the next three years has only been committed to three quarters of this, at £750 million. In fact, future years show significant shortfalls in funding likely to be made to councils. It would be a welcome move if, Minister, you could consider proper funding of these next three years of pressures to enable councils to deliver the services that our residents need.

Secondly, Minister, as you will be well aware, councils and council leaders work best when there is financial certainty and they can plan for the future. However, despite you receiving your future settlement for the next three years from the UK Government, there is still no specific breakdown of funding to individual councils beyond 2023. And the Welsh Local Government Association have been clear that a breakdown of funding beyond this time would be really beneficial. So, in light of this, I am disappointed that this hasn't been provided, and I hope that it's something that you're able to look into sooner rather than later.

Finally, a massive issue facing many councils up and down Wales is supporting an ageing population through social care. I have concerns that the current financial formula for local government does not properly reflect this shift in our population and the pressures that our hard-working services face. An example of this, just briefly, is that the current funding formula provides councils with over £1,500 for everybody over the age of 85, but for those aged 60 to 84, it provides just £10.72—a huge discrepancy in the formula, which makes it very difficult for councils supporting an ageing population. So, I would welcome a continued review of that formula with the Welsh Local Government Association, to make sure that it is still appropriate.

So, to conclude, there are, of course, positives from the local government settlement, which are welcomed. Nevertheless, as I've outlined, there are numerous issues that need to be addressed. I look forward to scrutinising the Minister over the settlement in the coming weeks on our Local Government and Housing Committee and putting forward our response from my side of the benches to this really important piece of work. Diolch yn fawr iawn.  

I call on the Minister for Finance and Local Government to reply. 

Thank you very much. Thank you to all colleagues for what has been a really, really useful debate. There have been so many points raised. So, I will try and respond to at least some of the key themes, but I know that my colleagues will have been listening carefully, and I look forward to responding to some of the more detailed points in the committee scrutiny sessions that will be taking place over the coming weeks.

So, the debate began with Peter Fox's reflections on the benefits of the union, and, absolutely, I would agree that Wales is stronger by being part of the union, and the union is stronger with Wales in it. But it certainly doesn't mean that there is not room for improvement. From a finance perspective, we could certainly do with improvement in terms of flexibility, clarity, fair play, and sticking to the letter and the spirit of the statement of funding policy.

I think that some of the contributions have really drawn out why all of this is important. So, Rhianon Passmore and Alun Davies were keen to talk about the loss of EU funding. Under the UK Government's community renewal fund, we heard that Wales will receive only £46 million this year, compared to at least £375 million we would have received from the EU structural funds from January 2021. So, clearly, a promise broken and one that will have real impacts in communities across Wales. Exiting the EU is compounding the economic damage caused by COVID. The loss of hundreds of millions of pounds in EU funding through the UK Government plans just adds to the pressures that we face, and it will be a ferocious impact, as Alun Davies described.

The UK Government has also announced that £0.4 billion will be available UK-wide on the shared prosperity fund in 2022-23, £0.7 billion in 2023-24, and £1.5 billion in 2024-25. So, clearly, by anyone's reckoning, we are absolutely being short-changed of the £375 million that we would have had annually through the EU had we remained in it and had the UK Government kept its promise that we wouldn't be a penny worse off.

Llyr Gruffydd also talked about farm funding, and that's another area where the UK Government has let us down badly. Our rural communities and farmers will lose out on at least £106 million of replacement EU funding over the spending review period, on top of the £137 million not provided for by the UK Government in this financial year. So, we completely disagree with the UK Government's assertion that they've met their obligations to provide replacement funding for farmers and rural development through a combination of replacement funding from the spending review and Wales's remaining EU funding. It's just a really disingenuous way of describing the way in which they're providing support for our rural communities, and, again, it will have real impacts for farming communities across Wales.

The issue of borrowing was also referred to, and this again is an area where if we did have greater flexibility then we could certainly plan better and we could make the most of our borrowing capacity. Our draft budget does reflect our plans to maximise our capital borrowing, drawing the maximum annual drawdown of £150 million a year, borrowing an additional £450 million up to 2024-25, and that's the maximum that we can currently access within the fiscal framework. So, we would like to raise the annual borrowing that we're able to access, and also the overall amount of borrowing that we're able to access. Those discussions are ongoing with the UK Government. We're not making any progress at the moment, but there will still be arguments that we continue to make alongside colleagues in the other devolved Governments. But I will add that we always, in our budgets, plan to draw down the full borrowing. The reason why it isn't allocated at the end of the year is as a result of late in-year changes announced by the UK Government that impact on our overall budget.

I also draw colleagues' attention to the fact that for the first time this year we're using an over-allocation of general capital, so that will help us to further stretch every available pound of capital funding, and will hopefully give us an opportunity really to provide flexibility for ourselves in the absence of it from the UK Government. 

I've talked about borrowing, so I'll also mention tax. Our draft budget uses tax forecasts published by the Office for Budget Responsibility in the Welsh taxes outlook, and taken together, WRIT, LTT, LDT and NDR will contribute around £3.9 billion to the Welsh Government budget in 2022-23, and that rises to £4.3 billion in 2024-25. This is the first multi-year budget since tax devolution, so it's important to note that future forecasts won't only affect in-year budget management in 2022-23, but also the overall budgetary arithmetic for 2023-24 and 2024-25, and I know that we'll be discussing that with the Finance Committee in due course. But it does really speak, I think, to the need to continue our efforts to grow our Welsh tax base, and you can see examples throughout the budget as to how we intend to do that. The personal learning accounts would be one really good example of how we intend to support people and continue to support people to maximise their income. So, I think that that's an area we can be very proud of, and an area, actually, where we've been doing some really good work in terms of gender budgeting, and I look forward to opportunities to discuss that further in committees.

I'll respond to some of the main policy areas that were referred to in the debate—social care, of course, being one. So, we're committed to providing social care with the funding it needs. In addition to the investment via the revenue support grant, we're providing £60 million additional funding to drive forward wider reforms to the sector and to place it on that sustainable footing for the future. In 2022-23 alone, we're providing over an additional £250 million for social services, and that includes £180 million provided within the local government settlement, direct investment of £45 million, plus £50 million of additional social care capital relative to 2021-22. And we've worked really closely with the WLGA, with the Association of Directors of Social Services, to understand the amount of funding that would be required to support social services, so I'm pleased that we've been able to give it the priority that it deserves. And alongside this, of course, in terms of capital, in 2024-25 we'll invest a total of £110 million of capital in primary and community care to support our vision for integrated and accessible infrastructure. And we're investing £180 million to support a range of social care programmes to both invest and improve in the residential care infrastructure, and also to support investment in the new integrated health and social care hubs. So, there's a lot of exciting work going on in that space.

Mental health has been referred to, and, again, this is a really important pillar of our budget, and I know that there was particular concern expressed during the debate about children and young people's mental health, and we absolutely recognise the impact that the pandemic has had in this area. So, as part of our overall £100 million investment, we're allocating an additional £10.5 million, up to 2024-25, directly in young people's mental health to support the whole-system approach.

Obviously, health is the largest part of our budget, and we're investing an additional £1.3 billion in revenue funding over the next three years in our NHS, taking the total spend in the NHS to over £9.6 billion. As part of that, we're committing £170 million recurrently to support the transformation of planned care, to help to tackle the backlog of patients whose treatments have been delayed by the pandemic, and also investing a further £20 million recurrently to support a focus on values-based healthcare, delivering outcomes that matter to patients. So, by the end of this budget period, we'll have invested over £800 million in NHS recovery, demonstrating our commitment to spending £1 billion over the lifetime of this Government. And we're also committed to ensuring that the NHS organisations maintain the financial stability that they've worked so hard to secure in recent years as they transform services for the future. So, we're allocating £180 million recurrently from 2022-23 onwards to help the NHS manage the financial impact of the pandemic on their underlying financial position, including recognising the impact that the pandemic has had on productivity and efficiency, and we would expect the NHS to return to pre-pandemic efficiency levels as the impact of COVID on core services eases.

There was reference to non-domestic rates and the importance of supporting businesses, and I absolutely recognise that. Of course, in this financial year, and I don't want to dwell too much on this financial year because I don't want to muddy the waters, but businesses in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors still aren't paying business rates because they've had a full year's support. And the draft budget does now include £116 million to provide that 50 per cent rate relief for businesses in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors in 2022-23. And that means that businesses in those sectors will continue to receive significant support as they recover from the pandemic. And we've invested, actually, an additional £20 million on top of the consequential we received from the UK Government to fund this decision, and that means that in combination with our existing permanent relief schemes, we will ensure that over 85,000 properties in Wales are supported in paying their rates bills in 2022-23. And since the start of the pandemic, of course, we have provided over £2.2 billion of support for ratepayers through our reliefs and our grant schemes, which I'm really pleased we've been able to do.

I'll just address a final couple of other areas, one being education and early years. Clearly, investing in early years and education is one of the most powerful levers that we have to tackle inequality, to embed prevention and to invest in our future generations, and this budget contains an additional £320 million up to 2024-25 to continue our long-term programme of education reform and ensure educational inequalities narrow and standards rise. This includes an additional £30 million for childcare and early years provision—again, another shared priority area with Plaid Cymru. Luke Fletcher was reflecting on how proud he was of what the co-operation agreement has delivered, and I think that this is another example of that. Alongside this investment in education and early years, we have £40 million for Flying Start and Families First, £64.5 million for wider schools and curriculum reform and £63.5 million investment in post-16 provision. And alongside the funding for schools, we're also providing an additional £63.5 million of additional funding for post-16 provision to support renew and reform funding aimed at ensuring the pandemic doesn't have a long-term effect on young people, especially in terms of them not entering employment, training or education, and allowing them to reach their full potential. And—

Minister, can you conclude your response now?

Finally, on local government, I'm really pleased that we were able to provide local government with a positive settlement. As Sam Rowlands says, like-for-like, it will increase by 9.4 per cent compared to the current year and no authority will receive less than an 8.4 per cent increase. I think this does reflect the importance that Welsh Government puts on local government as absolute key partners in delivering for people in Wales and driving us forward towards that fairer, greener and more prosperous Wales that I know we all want to see. My colleagues and I very much look forward to the committee scrutiny sessions.

I thank the Minister and all of those who contributed.