The following amendment has been selected: amendment 1 in the name of Darren Millar.

Item 6 is the debate on the draft budget for 2022 to 2023, and I call on the Minister for Finance and Local Government to move the motion. Rebecca Evans.

Motion NDM7908 Lesley Griffiths

To propose that the Senedd, in accordance with Standing Order 20.12:

Notes the Draft Budget for the financial year 2022-23 laid in the Table Office by the Minister for Finance and Local Government on 20 December 2021.

Motion moved.

Thank you. I'm pleased to open this debate this afternoon on the Welsh Government's draft budget for 2022-23.

Since we first had the opportunity to debate this draft budget in the Senedd, the Finance Committee and the other Senedd committees have scrutinised our spending plans. Before I provide some early reflections on the key themes arising from the scrutiny, I'd like to reflect on the circumstances that have shaped and continue to shape our budget preparations. This budget was forged to recognise that the pandemic and the repercussions of the previous year's restrictions are far from over. We have however set a budget that not only focuses on bolstering support for public services now, but also lays the foundations for a prosperous Wales beyond the pandemic. We have an obligation to those most affected by the pandemic to provide a fairer Wales that leaves no-one behind. This budget does all we can within our powers and funding to address the disproportionate impacts of the pandemic.

We also recognise the need to look to the longer term to ensure that we leave behind us a sustainable Wales for future generations. We have acted now to address the urgent need to respond to the climate and nature emergency. Our preparations have been guided by supporting Wales's path to recovery, ensuring that a stronger Wales emerges from the pandemic, and one that continues to value equality. Our public services are an integral part of this, and this is reflected in the additional revenue funding we are investing: £1.3 billion for the NHS, £60 million specific grant funding to support social care and other essential services, and £743 million for local government. I welcome the recognition that this draft budget has provided certainty to the wider public sector, and the acknowledgment of our engagement with partners. Alongside our support for the public sector, we will also continue to support the economy and businesses with direct investment of £160 million to mitigate the impacts of the pandemic, and with investment in public transport, town centres and digital infrastructure.

This budget also aims to deliver a fairer Wales, and our investment of an additional £60 million in childcare, almost £65 million in education recovery and reform, and £90 million in free school meals, on top of already significant investments in this area, shows our commitment to ensuring that no-one is left behind. Also, in response to the cost-of-living crisis, driven by a rate of inflation not seen for over a decade, this budget has considered the impacts on those most vulnerable. We have acted by including schemes like our basic income pilot and bolstering the discretionary assistant fund. We have also called on the UK Government to use all its levers to respond to the crisis, recognising that the levers that can have the greatest impact on welfare and energy are non-devolved. But we won't be complacent in our own response to help those most impacted by the crisis. I intend shortly to announce a package of measures for 2021-22 and 2022-23 targeted at where the greatest difference can be made to the people of Wales.

The climate and nature emergency demands urgent and radical action, the kind that guided the decision to create a new ministry for climate change and the kind that led to the decision to undertake a zero-based review of all of our capital budgets. In response, we have produced a new 10-year Wales infrastructure and investment strategy and a three-year investment finance plan, which aligns £8 billion of funding to tackling the climate and nature emergency. All investments in the plan must consider the carbon impact of their activities. At the heart of this plan is £1.8 billion of capital funding that invests in both the climate and nature emergencies, and this includes investment in the national forest, biodiversity and green spaces, energy generation and decarbonisation. In maximising our available capital funding, I will also be outlining further financial transactions capital allocations within our final budget, aligned to our priorities. The complex mechanisms in place by the UK Government to manage our own profile made it impossible to deliver a credible plan for the deployment of financial transactions capital earlier. 

Turning to points raised in scrutiny, I welcome the recognition of the positive steps that we're taking on improving budget and tax processes through our budget improvement plan. I look forward to engaging with the Finance Committee and wider Senedd colleagues on this important work as we move forward. I believe there's a real opportunity for us to work together to put Wales at the forefront of these reforms, both in the UK context and internationally. I also welcome the recognition of the extent to which the UK Government's actions have impacted on our plans.

The challenging front-loaded budget settlement from the UK Government's multi-year spending round, particularly in respect of capital, failed to address the significant concerns facing Wales. The lack of ongoing support for COVID from the UK Government, its failure to provide a credible plan to replace EU funding, and the dismissal of our reasonable request for support to remediate coal tips and address flooding, are only a few examples of where the UK Government has failed the people of Wales. We have also seen that by not concluding its spending review until late October, the UK Government has yet again failed to respect devolution, impacting our own budget and scrutiny timetable. While I hope to return to our normal timetable in future years, the reality is that we will be, again, at the whim of the UK Government. And, of course, I will continue to call for devolution to be respected in my engagement with the UK Government.

In light of the challenging settlement and the ongoing volatile fiscal context, we have done all that we can to maximise our available funding. I am positive that we have created a draft budget that appropriately utilises all of the levers within our powers. While the course of action we have taken is prudent, it does not come without risks. In fully deploying the available funding, we have adopted a new reserve strategy and overprogrammed our capital budgets. I therefore want to make it clear that, without further funding from the UK Government, any calls for increased funding would have to come from disinvestment in another area. In this respect, I welcome the recognition of the need for greater budgetary flexibilities from the UK Government. We may yet receive further funding from the UK Government in year, but it is often provided with very short notice and without the flexibility needed to maximise the benefits of these allocations.

This draft budget delivers on the commitments made in the Welsh Government's co-operation agreement with Plaid Cymru. It supports investment in 13 of the areas we have agreed to work together on, such as investment of an additional £90 million to support our ambition for free school meals for all primary school pupils. I will continue to work with designated Members in these areas of agreement. The draft budget also signals the investment of £20 million for looked-after children and care leavers as a result of discussions with Jane Dodds.

I'd like to offer my thanks to all of those involved in the budget preparation, including the Finance Committee. The scrutiny of our assumptions and plans is an integral part of the process, and whilst we agree with the vast majority of the recommendations, there are some that we will need to consider in light of the limitations I have set out today. I and my Cabinet colleagues will respond formally to the recommendations of the Finance Committee report and the other Senedd committee reports in advance of the vote on the final budget on 8 March. To conclude, I am confident that we have a budget that can deliver our ambition and our vision for a stronger, fairer and greener Wales. I am proud to present a draft budget that delivers for Wales, and I look forward to a constructive debate within the Senedd. Diolch.

I call on the Chair of the Finance Committee, Peredur Owen Griffiths.

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I am delighted to contribute to this important debate on the Welsh Government's draft budget 2022-23. This is the first draft budget of this Senedd and I am pleased that, for the first time since 2017, the Welsh Government has been able to provide a multi-year budget setting out funding for 2022-23 and indicative allocations for the following two years. This has been warmly welcomed by our stakeholders and has provided them with a level of certainty to plan more effectively over the longer term. We hope that this means the Welsh Government will return to publishing its budgets in October, allowing the committee its normal timetable of eight working weeks for scrutiny of the budget. We also look forward to leading a Plenary debate on the Welsh Government's spending priorities in the summer term, prior to the publication of the draft budget in the autumn.

This is my first draft budget as Chair of the Finance Committee, and I view engaging with people across Wales and listening to stakeholders as a priority. I would like to thank all those who provided evidence and shared their views with us through our consultation, our evidence sessions and our focus groups, which have all helped to shape our findings.

Dirprwy Lywydd, as Wales emerges from the pandemic, the Welsh Government, and the Minister in particular, is facing significant challenges in responding to economic pressures, the effects of climate change, Brexit and in mitigating the squeeze on household incomes. Pandemic-related pressures also remain significant for health, local government and businesses. Our report makes 41 recommendations. Given the time available, I will focus on our main concerns.

There is a notable and welcome shift in this draft budget towards recovery. The funding available to the Welsh Government has been better than expected and revised forecasts for the Welsh tax base also indicate an improved economic outlook. We welcome the increases in the Welsh block grant, which have enabled the Welsh Government to increase budget allocations across all expenditure groups. This is much needed and puts solid foundations in place for future years. However, whilst the draft budget for 2022-23 includes significant increases, the increases in the following two years are far smaller, and these years will be even more challenging.

As a committee, we are also concerned by the constrained outlook for capital funding, which, in real terms, is likely to be cut over the three-year period. Difficult choices will need to be made. To address this, we are pleased to hear that the Minister has changed her approach to allocating funding for capital projects, which is intended to maximise available funding, through borrowing and potential consequentials. However, we'd like to keep an eye on this new approach and we have recommended that Welsh Government reports back on the in-year funding position associated with overprogrammed capital plans and provides regular updates on the funding contained in the Wales reserve.

In terms of funding, the committee believes that the Welsh Government should have the autonomy to push funding from one year to the next, to prevent any Welsh funding being lost. To do its job effectively, the Welsh Government needs maximum budget agility, so we support the Minister in pressing the UK Government for greater flexibility. As Members are aware, in November last year, the co-operation agreement was announced between the Welsh Labour Government and Plaid Cymru, which included a number of additional spending commitments. Whilst the Minister told us that the agreement had little impact on the budget prioritisation process for this year, we recommend that the Welsh Government provides clarity on how the funding of associated policy commitments will be reflected in future budget allocations.

I'd now like to turn to how the draft budget impacts on specific policy areas. The committee welcomes the views that health, social care and local government have received a good settlement, which reflects the prioritisation of local services. We're also pleased to hear the positive comments regarding the Welsh Government’s response and financial support during the pandemic. However, these sectors are subject to unprecedented pressures. As mentioned, capital allocations will be a particular constraint, given the demands for service transformation, investment in infrastructure and the wider implications of decarbonisation and reducing environmental impact. To address this, we have recommended the Welsh Government considers switching revenue to capital as part of future budgets and allows the health sector to do the same, to provide flexibility, given the limited capital funding available. We're also concerned about staff shortages and workforce issues, with staff suffering from burnout and COVID-19 absences. There are also longer term challenges to deal with, such as high staff vacancies, with many in the health and social care sector making alternative career choices, often with better pay. As a result, the committee recommends the Welsh Government provides information to demonstrate how the allocations for 2022-23 will alleviate the immediate pressures on staffing across the health, local government and social care sectors.

The businesses we spoke to as a committee told us that engagement between the Welsh Government and the sectors they represent had been good. There was an acknowledgment of the swift support provided by the Welsh Government during the pandemic, particularly the business rates waiver, furlough scheme, grants and loans. However, we also heard that more could be done, which is why we recommend that the Welsh Government considers further allocations being made in the final budget to increase the support for business rates relief. To enable smaller businesses and retailers to recover from the pandemic, we further recommend that Welsh Government prioritises investment in digital infrastructure and skills and helps those businesses to develop an online presence.

With the climate and environmental agenda gathering momentum following the critical COP26 summit, the committee welcomes the Welsh Government’s efforts to target investment at the climate and nature emergencies. However, the level of new and additional funding identified within the draft budget may fall short of what’s required to deal with this huge task. It’s disappointing that the draft budget doesn't go further to assess the carbon impact of the Welsh Government’s spending decisions. If the climate and nature emergencies are truly a basis on which the Welsh Government is making its investments, it must have a clear idea of what it will achieve through its spending. The Welsh Government must also outline the practical ways in which the strategies and objectives outlined in the draft budget are being implemented in recognition of the climate and nature emergencies.

This year, households will feel significant pressures on their incomes as a result of inflation, rising energy costs and commodity prices, with the poorest households being hit hardest. Last week's announcement of a hike in the price of people's gas and electricity bills will be particularly worrying for many. The committee notes the Welsh Government’s ongoing efforts to address the crisis, such as the discretionary assistance fund, help with winter fuel bills and the extension of free school meals, although we heard that a range of schemes have a low profile, meaning the most vulnerable people are missing out. The committee urges the Minister to liaise with the Minister for Social Justice to ensure the public and support agencies understand that there's a range of support that is available. Welsh benefits should be simplified and consolidated. We call for the establishment of a single entry point that links across the key services and schemes so people can easily access the support they are entitled to.

I mentioned at the beginning of this contribution that engaging with people across Wales and listening to the views of stakeholders is a priority for me as Chair. Demonstrating the impact of the budget is crucial to ensure meaningful engagement with those sectors and organisations affected, and in providing them with an opportunity to inform and influence budgetary decisions. We have recommended therefore that consideration is given to how budgetary information is presented so that it’s linked to outputs and impacts. We feel that this will help the Welsh Government’s own evaluation, as well as increasing the public and Senedd’s ability to hold the Welsh Government’s budget to account. 

Therefore, in conclusion, Deputy Presiding Officer, financial scrutiny is more important than ever, with massive public spending required to deal with recovery post pandemic and tackling the huge pressures that Wales faces. As a participant from one of our focus groups told us, an increase in spending could make all the difference as we recover from the pandemic. The committee is pleased that those views are in line with the Welsh Government’s priorities. It's now up to the Minister to ensure that the Welsh Government’s vision is realised. As a committee, we will do our upmost to keep a watchful eye to ensure that the Welsh Government’s rhetoric matches reality. Thank you.

I have selected the amendment to the motion, and I call on Peter Fox to move the amendment tabled in the name of Darren Millar.

Amendment 1—Darren Millar

Delete all and replace with:

To propose that the Senedd:

Believes that the Welsh Government’s Draft Budget 2022-23 fails to deliver on the priorities of the people of Wales.

Amendment 1 moved.

Diolch, Deputy Llywydd. I move the amendment in the name of my colleague Darren Millar. Before I begin, can I thank the Minister for her statement, as well as my colleague the Chair of the Finance Committee? I'd like to thank you most sincerely for the way you've managed the committee through this first budget round; it's been great working with you. And also thanks to all of those who contributed to the scrutiny of this very important budget.

Deputy Llywydd, as I stated in my speech on the draft budget last month, there are a number of things that I generally welcome, for example the additional funding for the Welsh NHS, the business rates holiday and the uplift in the local government settlement. Such allocations are much needed to help services and businesses to not just recover from the pandemic, but to build resilience and to put us on a better path for the future. I must reiterate that it is because of the UK Conservative Government's record funding boost for Wales that the Welsh Government has been able to provide this much-needed funding support for our communities and services. However, the devil is in the detail, and we on this side of the Chamber will be closely scrutinising how this money is used over the coming months to ensure that it actually delivers on what is being promised by the Government—a stronger, fairer and greener Wales, as we just heard.

The reason for our amendment, Deputy Llywydd, and why the Welsh Conservative group will be voting against today's motion, is that we still feel that the Welsh Government can go further in its budget proposals. In fact, it needs to go further to tackle some of the most significant issues facing Wales: the backlog in the already overstretched, overworked Welsh NHS that has resulted in several unwanted records during COVID, such as the highest accident and emergency waiting times on record, the slowest ambulance response times on record and the longest waiting times on record; the ever-increasing demand on social care, which is placing huge strain on the sector as well as multiple staffing issues, including low pay, high turnover—[Interruption.] No, I won't be taking any interventions at the moment; it's a two-hour debate and there's a long time for people to contribute. They include low pay, high turnover rates and falling staff numbers in some areas. There's also the fragile state of the Welsh economy, which has had to deal with a cycle of restrictions over the past two years, stifling growth and investment. The pandemic has exposed the structural economic issues facing our communities, highlighting the need to level up the country. And responding to climate change and the nature emergencies, which will dominate the work of this Senedd, in what the Climate Change Committee called a 'decisive decade'.

Of course, there is also the current issue with the increasing cost of living, as we discussed earlier, as a consequence of inflationary pressure as the global economy picks up from the pandemic. Now, before Members opposite accuse me of this, I'm not being negative for the sake of it. The fact is that the pandemic has exasperated significant problems that already existed, as they had not been tackled by previous Governments. Despite the Labour group believing nothing wrong in Wales is down to them or the Welsh Government, these are things that the Government, indeed, here, and the Senedd will need to get to grips with over the next few years, and they're also the things that our constituents want us to focus our efforts on. This is why in my speech last month I set out some of the Welsh Conservative plans for the Welsh Government budget that would not only support the recovery of our public services, but would build a more prosperous, aspirational nation. Our costed plans include tackling the NHS backlog by establishing COVID-lite regional surgical hubs; supporting businesses to recover from the pandemic through a package of policies to get people back on to the high street, as well as additional money for businesses still struggling to pay for the cost of COVID; promoting research and development by delivering a more joined-up approach to R&D; establishing new partnerships and funding streams—this should be an explicit priority to help the country to build back better, creating jobs and encouraging inward investment; taking action to alleviate the pressure on families by funding an all-Wales council tax freeze for at least two years to give those families additional breathing space; increasing per-pupil funding to address historic underfunding of our schools and recruiting more full-time teachers to boost standards and give young people the education they need after two years of disruption.

What frustrates me, Deputy Llywydd, is that time after time, Minister after Minister, we hear how Welsh Government isn't the only ideas factory and the need for cross-party working on issues of national importance. And I was pleased to hear the Minister say today that she wants to work with all of us on this, yet Welsh Government action doesn't always quite match its rhetoric, and, instead, it feels that the Government's default position is to pivot towards the easiest way to get the votes necessary to pass a budget—a deal with Plaid, and, it seems, one with the Liberal Member also. And, once again—[Interruption.]

The Member has indicated earlier on that he will not take an intervention at this stage. 

And, once again, this is what we have ended up with. Minister, this debate is an opportunity to gain genuine cross-party support for your spending plans as well as to ensure that your budget puts Wales on a better path. Will you meet with me and colleagues from this side of the Chamber to listen to our concerns as well as those of stakeholders, and to consider our plans to ensure that the budget delivers on its priorities? 

Touching upon the Labour/Plaid agreement, which still seems to be a type of coalition in all but name, some concerns have been raised, such as by Wales Fiscal Analysis, that the agreement includes significant additional spending commitments. For example, as we've heard, expanding free school meals could cost an additional £86 million a year; expanding childcare provision could cost an extra £40 million-odd a year; and creating a national care service will need an extra £200 million a year at the very least. Well, we can see that Plaid Cymru certainly aren't a cheap date, are they? There remains questions about the deliverability of some of these commitments. For example, Minister, how do you respond to concerns from the Welsh Local Government Association about the apparent lack of additional capital funding to invest in schools' catering facilities to deliver on the school meals policy? The WLGA have also stated that the draft budget does not make allocation to reform the arrangements governing how people currently pay for care. Do you agree with this? Minister, could you also provide clarity on the future financial planning you have undertaken to cost and fund the co-operation agreement policies? And does this include increasing Welsh rates of income tax at some point?

Deputy Llywydd, exploring further, the draft budget front-loads a substantial amount of additional funding for the NHS, and I still question how this will impact on medium to long-term financial planning for services. How does the Minister respond to the significant concerns of the health committee about the failure of many of the health boards to achieve financial sustainability and the constant need for Ministers to bail them out? Furthermore, what impact will the £98 million reduction in the NHS core capital allocation have on the much-needed transformation of services, as highlighted by the NHS Confederation?

Now, whilst I welcome the increase in the local government settlement, there are still concerns that with all of the pressures facing councils, many will be left with little additional room to manoeuvre. Is the Minister considering any further allocations to local government so they can invest more in their local areas rather than merely meeting inflationary pressures? Meanwhile, there are still long-standing issues about the local government funding formula and, in particular, that the funding gap between the highest and lowest funded councils has widened yet again. Does the Welsh Government intend on finally reviewing and overhauling the formula so all councils get a consistently fair settlement, regardless of whether they're a rural or urban council? Now, I know the stock answer—we've heard it many times—but this is where Government need to lead, and lead from the front and take charge of this.

There is also the issue of climate change. Whilst I welcome the £1.8 billion capital over the next three years for green investment, £1.6 billion of this is allocated to decarbonising social housing, leaving just £200 million capital for other investments. Clearly, this can't be enough.

Before I finish, Deputy Llywydd, I just want to touch upon the future of EU funding. Throughout the budget process we have heard the Welsh Government constantly bashing the UK Government over the issue, indeed Members were waxing lyrical earlier today. Wales will continue to benefit from EU-funding tail-off until 2024-25, with the UK Government gradually topping up the remaining amount. It just seems as if the Welsh Government is happy scaremongering about Wales's future outside of the EU rather than looking at opportunities to level up our communities. Ministers talk about replacing programmes being a threat to devolution, but why should we not trust our councils and communities to deliver the changes that they want to see? Surely, we in this Chamber believe in the principles of subsidiary, don't we? Do Ministers really believe that the powers should just stop in Cardiff Bay?

The Member needs to conclude now. I have many speakers who want to contribute today.

We need to see Welsh Ministers engaging with replacement programmes, like many of our councils already have done, so our communities are best placed to take advantage of the funding heading our way. This budget needs to be one of not only support and recovery, but one of aspiration and prosperity, of levelling up—a budget that finally delivers real change for the people of Wales rather than just tinkering around the edges. The record funding from the Government in addition to the huge support during the pandemic provides us here in Wales with an opportunity to achieve a better, brighter and greener future. But as it stands, this is a budget that falls short in a number of key areas, in supporting our NHS, our communities—

Peter, you've gone over the time. You need to finish.

I'm just finishing, deputy Chair. The budget can and must do more, and this is why I sincerely hope that the Minister is open to engaging with us on this side of the Chamber and not just their friends in Plaid, so we, as one Senedd, can respond to the challenges facing the people of Wales. Diolch.

I will, first of all, speak in my capacity as my party's spokesperson on finance, and then make some comments as committee Chair, with your permission.

As Plaid Cymru, we do welcome that this is a multi-year budget, as we heard from the Chair of the Finance Committee. I think we've waited around five years to be in this position. It's miraculous how public bodies and the Government itself, to a certain extent, have been able to plan on such an ad-hoc basis, having to move from year to year because of the various scenarios that have arisen in Westminster. And hopefully now this assurance will be able to provide our public service providers with the ability to squeeze every penny out of the public purse in order to ensure that it's working as hard as possible. And that does need to happen, of course, because some might argue that the settlement is, apparently, at first sight, perhaps, quite generous; the reality is very different, particularly if you look over the whole three-year period.

We are still seeing the implications of Brexit, which is bringing additional costs to us in Wales, we are still fighting COVID, we are still facing a climate and nature emergency in Wales and globally, and we are now seeing the cost-of-living crisis hit. So, if you believe that the health service and local government and providers of public services have been under pressure for years, well, that is by no means going to be reduced in ensuing years. It is likely to intensify, and we must bear that in mind. For the Conservatives to stand up in this Chamber and suggest that the UK Treasury has been generous to Wales—well, that's farcical in my view. And it's insulting, if truth be told, and even if you did accept that it's a better than expected settlement, what we're seeing, of course, is the UK Government giving with one hand and taking away with the other. There's £1 billion of European funding that should be coming to Wales. They've rejected the Welsh share of HS2, whilst they're happy to give it to Scotland and Northern Ireland, but not to Wales, oh no. Wales needs to know its place when it comes to consequentials of that kind.

We also know, of course—and it's nothing new—that if Welsh budgets had kept pace with inflation, then, as the Minister regularly reminds us, there would be an additional £3 billion in the budget that we're discussing today. But, no. So, let not the Conservatives come here and tell us how lucky we are. The truth is that it's quite the opposite.

Indeed, by the end of the third year, in looking at what is before us this afternoon, the revenue budget will be just 0.5 per cent larger over three years. That's growth of 0.5 per cent over three years. And the capital budget, that investment in infrastructure that is needed to spark our economy and create jobs here in Wales, will fall by 11 per cent. That is the reality of the budget we're facing today, so I don't want to hear any more of that nonsense, with all due respect.

In terms of the Conservative amendment, well, what a lazy amendment that is. It is overly general; it's a plague on all your houses, in effect. Are you saying that all elements of the budget fail to meet the needs of the people of Wales? It's not perfect, and I am concerned—I share concerns—about the local government settlement, for example, not necessarily for next year, but certainly in years 2 and 3, when the funding will fall even further behind levels of inflation.

I'm also concerned that there is more that could and should be done to safeguard the people of Wales in light of the cost-of-living crisis, and some of my colleagues on the Plaid Cymru benches will expand on that later on in this debate.

But there are elements to be welcomed, too, which certainly meet the needs of the people of Wales in my view, particularly the elements of this budget, as we heard from the Minister, implementing the co-operation agreement between Plaid Cymru and the Government. So, rather than complaining at the periphery, as the Conservatives are doing, Plaid Cymru have rolled up their sleeves, sat down with the Government and discussed what we can do to tackle these problems. Rather than defending cuts in universal credit, Plaid Cymru in this agreement is delivering on free school meals for children in Wales. Rather than lining the pockets of wealthy friends with suspect PPE contracts, as the Conservatives have done, in the co-operation agreement, Plaid Cymru is delivering more care, free of charge, to the children and parents of Wales.

And there are 44 other policies that are to be implemented in that co-operation agreement, and I look forward to seeing this budget ensuring that we can make progress with those. So, unlike what we've seen from the Conservatives and the Westminster Government these days, Plaid Cymru is espousing responsible, constructive politics, which prioritises the needs of the people of Wales. That is reflected to a great extent in the allocations within this budget.

It's not perfect, I agree. It's not the budget that Plaid Cymru would have laid in its entirety, and that is why we won't be voting in favour of the budget. But it is a step in the right direction, and at least starts the work of building the Wales that we want to see.

I'll move on now to contribute to the debate on behalf of the Climate Change, Environment and Infrastructure Committee. Of course, this is the first draft budget of the sixth Senedd. It comes on the heels of COP26 and precedes COP15, where new global biodiversity targets are expected to be agreed. There is growing pressure on Governments across the world to match their warm words on climate change and nature recovery with action and investment. And the sixth Senedd coincides with a critical period in the fight against climate change and nature decline. And actions taken by the Welsh Government over the next five years will be crucial in determining whether Wales can meet its carbon budget for 2021-25, and make sufficient progress towards becoming a net-zero nation by 2050, or, hopefully, sooner.

Much of the Welsh Government’s narrative around the draft budget relates to the need to deliver an urgent and radical response, to use the Government’s own words, to the climate change emergency, and the draft budget provides an opportunity for the Welsh Government to demonstrate its commitment to doing just that through its spending decisions. And there are some encouraging signs: increased investment in decarbonising housing, forestry, the circular economy, renewable energy and flooding. But the real test, of course, is whether this will be enough to deliver the change at the scale and pace required.

Decarbonising transport is one of the main challenges facing the Welsh Government, and the latest transport strategy, quite rightly, sets stretching targets, including for 50 per cent of buses to be zero emission by 2028. But funding to support local bus service decarbonisation will not follow until 2023-24. The question is: why? Why is that the case? And we’ve asked the Minister for an explanation. Alongside the target for the bus fleet, the Welsh Government has a target that all taxis or private hire vehicles will be zero emission by 2028. Well, this sector, with individuals being self-employed and on low earnings, will need adequate support to transition to electric vehicles. In our report, therefore, we call on the Welsh Government to set out a route-map for achieving the 2028 targets, including details of estimated financial cost and how it will be met. And we look forward to receiving the response.

Finally on transport, we’re concerned about the growing backlog of outstanding local highways maintenance, at a cost of an estimated £1 billion. The state of our roads not only has an impact on transport but on other things too, because of the wider problems that disrepair can cause, such as culverts that aren’t maintained and then lead to flooding. And the Deputy Minister has told us that funding will be redirected as a result of the roads review, but the concern is that that won’t even scratch the surface. But time will tell.

Moving on to the nature emergency, the Welsh Government in the fifth Senedd failed to deliver for nature. It missed both national and international commitments and targets. While the latest science suggests that it’s not too late to pull nature back from the brink, transformative change is needed—not next year, not in five years’ time, but now. And the draft budget suggests an increase in direct spending on biodiversity, which is to be welcomed. However, the Welsh Government needs to be clearer about the total amount of funding it’s providing for nature recovery and how it’s assessing and monitoring the impact of this on fighting on biodiversity loss.

And to conclude, Natural Resources Wales has a pivotal role to play in protecting and enhancing the Welsh natural environment and supporting the Welsh Government in delivering its ambition. And the message from stakeholders is coming through loud and clear that NRW is struggling to perform its role properly because of a lack of capacity and resources. The Minister has told us that work is under way to review NRW funding, and we welcome that very much as a committee, but we must use this opportunity to reverse the historic trend of cuts in NRW's funding. We must agree on a settlement therefore—

The Member needs to conclude now.

—that is commensurate with its role and responsibilities. We don’t want to be back discussing this again next year. Thank you.

I'd like to begin by placing on record my thanks to the Ministers, Deputy Ministers and Welsh Government officials who provided evidence to us on the Children, Young People, and Education Committee to support our scrutiny of this year's draft budget. As well as appearing before committee, the Welsh Government provided us with extensive and detailed written information. We're grateful for their hard work and co-operation, which enhanced our ability to scrutinise the draft budget. We asked for such detailed information because of the experiences of our predecessor committee, which felt the Welsh Government did not set out clearly enough how its draft budgets complied with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Unfortunately, this was also the case this year. Disappointingly, the Government did not publish children’s rights impact assessments to show how children’s rights shaped budget allocations for children and young people. A glaring omission was that it did not mention children’s rights once in its entire strategic integrated impact assessment.

We're deeply concerned that this is a backward step in its statutory obligations under the Rights of Children and Young Persons (Wales) Measure 2011. This law means that Welsh Ministers need to give due regard to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in everything it does. The financial allocations across the Welsh Government’s portfolios are amongst the most important decisions that Welsh Ministers make. We hope that this year was an unfortunate blip and that the Government accepts our recommendations in this area for future draft budgets.

We made a number of strong recommendations, but I would like to highlight two other recommendations from our final report. The first is about perinatal mental health. At the moment, many families in north and mid Wales have to travel unreasonably long distances to access specialist perinatal mental health support services. We heard from the Deputy Minister that plans to open new provision for those families just over the border, in conjunction with NHS England, were being driven at pace. Unfortunately, our predecessor committee heard similar assurances back in 2017. We have recommended that the Welsh Government clarify what services will be opening for Welsh families, and when those services will be available.

The second relates to the education maintenance allowance. The Welsh Government has not changed the maximum EMA award of £30 since 2004. Neither has it changed the maximum household income threshold since the 2011-12 financial year. We believe that the EMA is an invaluable source of income for children and their families. We have recommended that the Government clarify why it has let the real-terms value of the EMA decline so markedly, and the impact of that decline on the number of learners who are eligible for it.

Our report makes a number of other constructive recommendations across a range of critical policy areas. More generally, the committee welcomes the additional funding that has been made available in 2022-23 for children and young people. In particular, we welcome the Welsh Government’s commitment to, and funding for, COVID recovery.

We have agreed that we will pay particular attention throughout the sixth Senedd to policy delivery. This applies to many commitments that the Welsh Government made to us in relation to the draft budget. For the 2022-23 financial year and beyond, my fellow committee members and I will do what we can to ensure that the Welsh Government translates those commitments and funding allocations into real improvements to the day-to-day lives of children and young people. Diolch.

Good afternoon, Minister. Thank you so much for the work you've done on the budget, and thank you for your engagement with me as well. Thank you. 

I'd like to start by welcoming the proposals in the draft budget. I and the Liberal Democrats in Wales support them. Those are: investing in mental health services; an increase in the pupil development grant, an initiative introduced by the Liberal Democrats again; continuing with the discounted travel scheme for those under 21 years of age; planning to provide free school meals to every child in primary education; and I also look forward to seeing more details about proposals with regard to childcare. And I'm also pleased to see the commitment, following my proposal to reform services for children last year, to invest in a programme of reform to ensure that every child in receipt of care has the best start in life.  

I wonder if I could just focus on three areas: transport, health and cladding, which I mentioned earlier in the Siambr. If I could start with transport, I welcome the outline detail provided in terms of funding to aid public transport and the decarbonisation agenda. I wonder if you're able to provide more information on how the budget allocation will enable socially beneficial routes to be maintained, or even reinstated, and how much of the current allocated budget is directed towards decarbonisation. And I'd like to ask what discussions have happened with the Deputy Minister for Climate Change, following my short debate on free public transport for under-25s, and how this budget could possibly kick start that ambition.

On health, I just wondered if I could seek some clarity on the funding for mental health. I welcome the additional funds allocated to mental health services, and the additional £10 million for children and young people. Minister, we know that the number of young people waiting for more than four weeks for an assessment on mental health is the highest on record. So, I wonder if you could share some additional detail on how this would be allocated. And, staying with health again, I have consistently raised concerns around dentistry, particularly in mid and west Wales, with a growing number of people unable to access NHS dentistry even before the pandemic. I'm very grateful for the additional funds made available, but it needs to go further. So, I'd be really grateful for more information on that.

Finally, Minister, just on cladding—again, the second time that I have raised this issue this afternoon—it really is a crisis and a scandal for those people affected. Again, I welcome the detail set out in the budget relating to this matter. I am concerned, however, that the bulk of the capital allocation to deal with this issue is in year 2024-25, which leads me to believe that the vast majority of those caught up in this issue will have to wait at least another three years before remediation work will even begin. That's eight years since the tragedy at Grenfell Tower. When the building safety passport scheme has already received 248 expressions of interest, and we can expect an announcement in the next phase in April, I would like to ask whether those leaseholders are being asked to wait further time for essential safety works to take place. 

I finish once again, Minister, by thanking you for your engagement and for your support to some of the issues that I have put forward in the budget. Diolch yn fawr iawn. Diolch.

This debate would be improved if we had alternative proposals, even if only at the level of ministerial budgets, from the Conservatives, who weren't willing to accept any interventions, and Plaid Cymru. It's easy to spend additional money. Perhaps you ought to say where you want to take it from.

I will support the budget, but the key question is: what will be achieved for the additional expenditure? I welcome the announcement by the UK Government of its multi-year budget settlement, and I'm pleased to see that the Welsh Government took the opportunity of a three-year spending review to give funding certainty to organisations, providing provisional allocations for 2023-24 and 2024-25. There will be people working in the voluntary sector who don't have their Christmas present this year of a redundancy notice because they don't know if they are going to be funded into the following year.

I further welcome that the allocation provided over the three-year period has given the Welsh Government the opportunity to provide significant increases in revenue funding in 2022-23. However, the increases in 2023-24 and 2024-25 are far more modest, with some organisations having their budgets frozen in cash terms at the 2022-23 level. I welcome the over-commitment of capital expenditure, because it should avoid capital underspends as schemes slip during the year. It's inevitable that capital schemes will slip during the year.

It is easy to spend money. The challenge to Government is to spend it beneficially. I am disappointed that Welsh Government has not used the five Es. Effectiveness: was the expenditure effective in the previous year and did it achieve what was required? Efficiency: were resources used efficiently last year? If not, what is going to be done to ensure efficient use of resources this year? Equality: is the budget expenditure fair to all groups? I heard Jayne Bryant earlier talking about children; I'm sure that somebody is going to mention women, and somebody else is going to mention older people later on this debate. Equity: is the budget fair to all of Wales, not just for one year but over several years? And environment: what is the expected effect of the budget on carbon and biodiversity? 

Whilst the future generations Act deals with the last one, the first four need addressing. Why are certain areas in the UK, North America and Europe economically successful, with high wages, high skills and high productivity? They provide the most important economic tool—not giving people bribes to come; education is the most important economic tool. If you need to provide financial incentives to companies to bring branch units, they don't want to come. Provide the research capacity in universities, and provide a highly skilled workforce, and clusters of companies will start forming. Then, the economy will grow, and wages will increase.

Also, investing in early years and education remains one of the most powerful levers for tackling inequality, to embed prevention and invest in our future generations, so that no-one is left behind. With the universal provision of free school meals in state primary schools, the use of free school meals as an indicator of additional educational funding will obviously disappear. I think we need to know what is going to replace that.

Turning to efficiency, the health service needs bringing—. I was going to say into the twenty-first century, but certainly into the last bit of the twentieth century. Prescriptions are printed, signed, hand-delivered; why can't we have e-prescribing? Why can't they be filled in online with an online signature and then sent to the relevant pharmacist? There may be concerns about certain drugs, especially opium-based drugs, but safeguards for those can be built in. One of the things that surprised many of us at the health committee—and I'm sure Russell George is going to mention it later—is that fax machines are not only still used but are still being bought in the health service.

What are the health boards doing to increase energy efficiency? With health boards getting extra money, how are they going to improve productivity in hospitals? We seem to have this idea that you just give the money and everything will be fine. Well, you give the money and everything isn't fine, and we need to address why it isn't fine, and make sure that in the future it is fine. And just saying, 'We need more money for health' or 'We need more money for something else', that's fine, it's easy, it's good politics; it is bad economics. I think that what we need to do is ensure that the money is spent effectively and efficiently, and we know that buying fax machines probably doesn't come on the list of spending that's either effective or efficient.

I have a prediction, which I hope is wrong, that the health boards will get the increase and the share given to primary healthcare will again decrease, so primary healthcare's percentage of health expenditure will go down. The Welsh Government have created large organisations such as NRW, Betsi Cadwaladr and the Welsh ambulance service; at what point does the Government decide they are not working and need breaking up into smaller units? Will this budget allow that to happen? 

Finally, we need to solve the problem of operational management in the public sector, to improve efficiency and effectiveness. We need to concentrate on outcomes, and far less on inputs and how much money we're spending. What are we getting for our bucks?

Our health and social care services continue, of course, to be at the forefront of Wales's response to the pandemic. On behalf of the Health and Social Care Committee, I would like to thank everyone in health and social care, including the many volunteers and hundreds of thousands of unpaid carers across Wales. We owe them, I think, a debt of gratitude.

The health and social care sector is also working hard to recover and maintain the crucial non-COVID services on which people rely. They're also looking, of course, to the future, towards a post-pandemic reset, which offers a chance to build a more resilient system and help people in Wales live longer and healthier lives. Without a stable and robust and effective social care sector, we can't be confident of course that people will receive the care and support that they need, and risk seeing the impact on health services even worsen.

So, already, too many people are having to spend too long in hospital because suitable care packages can't be provided. Others are being discharged without adequate care packages. Unless these issues are resolved, the funding allocated to health services may continue to increase year on year without delivering more integrated services or improving outcomes. So, in that context, the Health and Social Care Committee welcome the increase in funding for social care. However, we are not yet assured that the allocations in the draft budget will be enough to respond to the immediate pressures or provide longer term stability. Most urgently, further clarity, I think, is needed from the Welsh Government on what is going to be in the immediate term to address the workforce and other pressures facing social care providers and what contingency plans are in place to ensure that people continue to receive the care and support that they need, if pressures facing the sector worsen.

There are also significant pressures on, of course, our health services, and committee members  and I are deeply concerned that the equivalent of one in five people in Wales are on waiting lists, many of which are waiting for long and uncertain periods of time, in pain, discomfort, distress and also in many cases facing financial hardship in that time as well. So, these are issues that we will be discussing with the Minister later this week as part of our inquiry into the impact of waiting time backlogs.

We are pleased to see the investment in the recovery of NHS services; however, we would welcome more detail from the Government on how the Government will assess how the funding for the NHS's recovery plan will transpire, which is of course due to be published in April. In that case, we're obviously very keen to see the new ways of working, new models of service delivery and achieving outcomes and experiences for people who need health and care services. I think meaningful and sustained transformation is absolutely necessary, and I align my own views with the views of Mike Hedges in regard to e-prescribing. I wasn't going to mention this, but, yes, of course, Mike is right: we heard just two weeks ago that the NHS is not only still using fax machines, they're still actually buying fax machines. So, we want to see the Welsh Government continue its use in regard of its budget in terms of driving transformation and increased resilience within the Welsh NHS.

The National Health Service Finance (Wales) Act 2014 gave health boards a statutory duty to break even over a three-year rolling period, so it is disappointing that two health boards are still consistently failing to operate within their budgets and a third is only breaking even as a result of the millions of pounds of additional support each year. So, we agree with the Minister for Health and Social Services that this isn't a sustainable system, and it isn't fair on health boards that are doing the right thing and keeping within their budgets.

The new health and social care regional integration fund and the new capital fund for social care are central pillars of the Welsh Government's transformation agenda. However, we do note that previous transformation funds were criticised by Audit Wales in 2019 on the basis of little evidence of successful projects being mainstreamed and funded as part of public bodies' core service delivery.

And of course, it isn't just about transforming our health and social care services—it's not enough to just do that—we also need to transform how we think about health and how we make sure that they're included and everyone's involved in that. We know there's a high level of chronic disease across Wales; it's too high and there are too many issues of unhealthy lifestyles, and it's all too very common. So, helping everyone in our communities—

The Member needs to conclude now.

—to lead healthier lives will need cross-Government action to tackle the root causes. That includes housing, poverty and access to affordable and healthier food.

And in finishing, Deputy Presiding Officer, we need of course to tackle the many health inequalities, and we need greater clarity about how funding in the budget will be targeted to ensure that spending achieves the desired outcomes, with people in Wales leading longer and healthier lives. Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd.

I'll be speaking in my capacity as Chair of the Local Government and Housing Committee, and I'd like to thank the Welsh Local Government Association, the Minister for Finance and Local Government and the Minister for Climate Change for attending the committee's evidence sessions.

Our committee welcomes the local government settlement. We heard from the sector that it is generous and it will enable local authorities to undertake longer term planning rather than simply reacting to immediate pressures. But we are concerned at the reduction in capital funding for local government, which is part of a wider reduction in capital spend across the budget. We've therefore recommended that Welsh Government and the WLGA work together to explore alternative ways of supporting larger capital budgets for local government, including the role of supported borrowing.

We're also concerned by the continuing difficulties faced by local government in recruiting and retaining staff across all service areas, but particularly in social care. The Minister referred to an additional £60 million direct funding for reforming the care sector; however, we would like to know how the Welsh Government will ensure that this funding will achieve its aims. We've recommended that Welsh Government, before publishing the final budget, provides further information as to how this additional money will contribute to the long-term sustainability of the sector.

In terms of housing, we welcome the commitment to reform homelessness services to focus on prevention and rapid rehousing. However, we are concerned that there is currently an unprecedented number of people in temporary accommodation. The latest data for October 2021 shows that there were over 7,000 people in emergency temporary accommodation and 1,728 were dependent children under the age of 16. People need to be moved into long-term permanent accommodation if homelessness is to be rare, brief and unrepeated, as Welsh Government aspires to in its strategy. We're concerned that local authorities may face financial challenges if the number of people in temporary accommodation continues to increase. We therefore recommend that the Welsh Government closely monitors the pressures on emergency temporary accommodation, so that local authorities have the necessary resources to ensure that no-one is left without accommodation.

And, as the pandemic comes to an end, local authorities will not be able to help people with no recourse to public funds. The introduction of public health legislation to extend help and support to people in this position has provided a lifeline to many during the pandemic. So, it's very concerning that some people may fall through the gaps and not be eligible for support once the public health emergency is over. We therefore recommend that Welsh Government works with the UK Government to ensure that it's still able to extend housing-related help and support to people with no recourse to public funds.

There is a concern that Welsh Government will have problems with material price inflation, supply chain disruption and a shortage of skilled labour in trying to build new, low-carbon social homes for rent. We're worried about the impact this will have on the target of 20,000 affordable homes, especially as we heard that this figure may not be sufficient to address problems with housing supplies in Wales. And on the subject of low-carbon homes, we're also concerned as to whether the budget allocation for decarbonisation is sufficient to enable local authorities and registered social landlords to decarbonise their stock. Given that the Welsh Government has declared a climate emergency, this is something that should be prioritised, and we've asked the Minister to provide detail on how the budget allocation is sufficient to progress retrofitting work at the level and pace required.

Finally, we welcome the additional revenue in the draft budget to support fire safety surveys and the creation of building remediation passports for all mid and high-rise buildings across Wales. We appreciate that the Welsh Government's priority is to determine what's wrong with these buildings. However, providing leaseholders and tenants with solutions, as well as information about the safety of their buildings, must be a priority. This is a very worrying time for those affected. Leaseholders and tenants need to be provided with answers about how the funding will be used as soon as possible, so that they at least have some clarity and certainty at this difficult time. We've recommended that Welsh Government should ensure that leaseholders will not have to cover the cost of remediation, and that work to improve the safety of these buildings should be progressed urgently. Diolch yn fawr.

May I, first of all, thank the Minister for finance and the Government for bringing this debate before the Senedd? I will be contributing to this debate on behalf of the Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport and International Relations Committee. Considering the committee's wide remit, I will focus on the main points that we have noted following our scrutiny of the budget.

Since the committee was established in June of last year, the committee's remit has been extended to include international relations. And although the funding allocated to this work stream is relatively small, at around £8 million in total, it is important work. Following Brexit, Wales's role on the international stage is more important now than ever before. Unfortunately, we as a committee were disappointed with the level of information shared with us on this subject. I refer specifically to the lack of narrative in the budget document and with regard to the information shared with the committee as written evidence. This made our scrutiny work that much more difficult. Transparency is exceptionally important for our scrutiny as Members, and therefore we urge the Government to note this and to ensure that it is more open and provides much more information next year.

Turning to sport, in its written evidence to the committee, the Government said:

'Sport can be the nation's most effective preventative health tool but greater cross-sector prioritisation is needed to create the long-term sustainable shifts in participation.'

Despite this convincing message, it isn't obvious in the financial settlement for sport. A pitiful increase of 1 per cent in revenue funding and a decrease of 7 per cent in capital budgets is the allocation for sport. 'Nid wy’n gofyn bywyd moethus'—'I don’t ask for a life of luxury, gold and pearls', so says one of our nation's most famous hymns. We're not asking for all of the Government's resources and funding, but what we would like to know is what actions justify the aforementioned statement. If there is expenditure in other departments, for example, then it is important that the Government says so to justify this important narrative as we restore our nation's health following the pandemic, hopefully.

Next, I'd like to refer to concerns regarding cuts to the capital budgets of the national library and national museum. Capital funding for these institutions will fall by 32 and 33 per cent respectively in the next financial year. As outlined in the tailored review of the national library, it is estimated that up to £26 million in capital funding will be required to undertake maintenance and essential improvements to the library. These institutions are two of our nation's great treasures. We as a committee are concerned that the longer it takes to complete capital works, the longer some of our nation's most important collections will be at risk. So, 'the rougher the stone, the stronger the wall' is our message to the Government. We urge you to outline how you will provide the necessary resources to the two organisations to ensure that they can continue to safeguard our nation's treasures.

To conclude, Dirprwy Lywydd, in terms of the Welsh language, we very much welcome, as a committee, the additional funding for the Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol. However, we are of the view that the best way to ensure that children truly pick up the language, thereby leaving school fluent in Welsh, is through being immersed in the language from a very early age. This means significant investment in early years provision and language transmission. To this end, it is important that the Government explains the implications in terms of resources to reach the target of opening 60 additional cylchoedd meithrin during this Senedd term. We shall see, after the results of the recent census are published, how much work remains to do to reach the 2050 target. Thank you very much.

I'm grateful to the Minister for introducing this debate this afternoon. In many ways, this is an excellent budget in very difficult circumstances. We will welcome the investment in NHS recovery, the support for vulnerable people, the young person's guarantee, the real living wage for social care workers, the basic income pilot, meeting our obligations in responding to climate change. All these different issues and much more are the hallmark of a progressive Government.

But let me say this: we've listened to a debate and participated in a debate this afternoon that hasn't been a debate about a budget, it's been a debate about expenditure—half a budget debate. Because I haven't heard a speech, with the exception of possibly Mike Hedges, that hasn't sought to address the issues of income as well as expenditure. Every opposition Member will, in their speeches, spend every pound twice. That is not a good way of conducting business in this place. I would invite the Minister, at the conclusion of this debate this afternoon, to bring forward another statement on tax policy and income derived from taxation, because we need to be debating income as well as expenditure. That is the hallmark of a Parliament that understands its role.

Also, we need to discuss the size and the shape of the Welsh Government. We make great demands on the Welsh Government, and so we should. Our expectations of the Welsh Government need to be high, must be demanding. But the reality is that I'm not convinced we've got a Government that is of the right shape or size to deliver on the commitments it makes and the expectations that we all have on it.

Ten years of austerity has broken the model of many of our public services, but it has also had a deep, corrosive impact on the whole of our public sector and how we can work together and deliver on the future. And Brexit is a bigger challenge for the Welsh Government than perhaps it was for the United Kingdom Government. For the first time, the Welsh Government now has to not just deliver policy but to develop policy as well. Do we have the people who are able to do that? Do we have the people who are able to write the laws that will deliver on the ambitions that we have and the responsibilities we have gained? I'm not convinced that the answer to that question is 'yes'. We've heard Ministers come into this Chamber to tell us that they can't bring forward legislation because they don't have the resources available to them. That is an indication of a Government that doesn't have the resources available to it to deliver on its responsibilities.

In terms of where we are now, we need to look at some of these things and we need to look hard at how we replace the lost EU funding. I'm old enough to remember in the last Senedd Simon Hart coming to the external affairs committee, chaired by the Deputy Presiding Officer, and giving an absolutely clear and firm unequivocal commitment that not a penny would be lost from EU funding—£375 million would be delivered. He was either deliberately not telling the truth or he's incompetent. He's unable to stand up for Wales in the United Kingdom Government. I tend to think, frankly, that he's more incompetent than dishonest. I tend to think that the UK Government, as was said earlier, think that they can get away with short-changing Wales in a way they can't get away with short-changing Scotland, and they are doing so. The continuing issue over rail underinvestment is something that's going to drag us back time and time and time again.

So, what do we do about it? Well, some of us make speeches about it, and so we should. But we also need to look at how do we replace that funding. Hundreds of millions of pounds every year has been taken from Wales as a direct consequence of the failures of Brexit and of the consequence of lies, frankly, that were told by people promoting it. That is a fact that you can't escape from. So, we need to look at how we replace it. We need to look at how we replace that funding, and I think we do need to debate and discuss that.

I would like to ask the Minister for a confirmation, in her summing up today, that the Tech Valleys programme in my constituency—. The Welsh Labour manifesto commitment was to deliver the £100 million programme in my constituency, and I want her to confirm this afternoon that this programme will be delivered in full, in Blaenau Gwent, as we've heard from Ministers before.

And finally, Mike Hedges quite often makes the most interesting contributions during the afternoons when we have these debates, and he did so again today. Because rather than just simply coming here with a shopping list, what he did was to ask how are we going to deliver what we've promised, what are we going to actually do. I think he's absolutely right, and I'll say it again, that we need to have far clearer objectives and timelines and deadlines and expectations given to us from Government. It isn't enough simply to say, 'We've got a problem, here's £10 million; we've got a bigger problem, here's £20 million; we've got a much bigger problem'—

Alun, conclude now, please.

I wasn't going any further, Deputy Presiding Officer. I think I got as far as I could with that. But what we need to do is to ensure that we have the objectives set by Government ahead of these programmes—objectives, timelines, targets—so that we can hold the Government to account in future years for delivering, or not delivering, the commitments that they are making this afternoon. I'm grateful to you, Deputy Presiding Officer.

Thanks to the Welsh Government and the Minister for bringing forward today's debate on the 2022-23 draft budget, a draft budget that I, and I'm sure many people across Wales, have eagerly been waiting for. I'm sure all Members across the Chamber can agree that this budget has come at a difficult time, as we continue to move out of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, it's clear from our side of the Chamber that this budget doesn't go far enough in delivering on the priorities of the people of Wales. As outlined by my colleague Peter Fox in his response to this draft budget, our local services have gone under huge pressure following the pandemic. I've mentioned many times in the Chamber before that it's extremely important to keep noting during this pandemic that councils in particular have gone above and beyond in providing exceptional services to our local communities.

The Llywydd took the Chair.

Minister, as you'll be well aware, councils have, of course, welcomed the local government settlement in general at a 9.4 per cent increase on average across those councils. But we have to recognise that that is after years and years of underfunding to councils across Wales. It's also important to note that there are some challenges with the way in which this funding is allocated, and I think it's something that Llyr Gruffydd mentioned before in terms of the future funding of councils as well. An example that I'll highlight—I'm sure you won't be too surprised at this—is that Conservative-led Monmouthshire County Council, run very well, may I add, will receive the highest increase in aggregate external finance next year, but in terms of that per capita funding, per resident there, it's the lowest at around £1,200 per person, completely different to that £1,900 per person per resident in Blaenau Gwent. [Interruption.] I'll take the intervention, Llywydd. 

Thank you, Sam Rowlands. The reason for that, of course, is that they've got greater capacity to get money in from their council tax. Over half the properties in Monmouthshire are above band D; in Blaenau Gwent, well over half are in band A. 

Thanks for the contribution, Mike Hedges. I think what you point to there is obviously a desire to tax some areas much more significantly than others. Of course, what we need to see is a fair settlement to benefit residents across all of Wales. That disparity for me is an opportunity that hasn't been dealt with.

I'm also disappointed to see there's still no or very little talk from Welsh Government regarding an independent review into the current funding distribution method for councils. It's still clear now that the current system disadvantages many rural councils, which I think is another point that Peter Fox pointed to, and it's not up to date on a number of metrics. I'm sure the Minister will also share my concern that, despite hefty increases in the local government settlement, the majority of councils will still be putting up the council tax, and it's them who are standing up in those council chambers taking the criticism for that from their electorate, when, actually, they're having to deal with very challenging budgets themselves.

Another concern received from council leaders during the Local Government and Housing Committee evidence session regarding the budget has been a decline in the capital funding as well. The draft budget allocates around £150 million in capital funding to councils, around £50 million lower than in previous years. This is causing a significant concern—I think the Chairman of the committee highlighted this—in terms of seeking other ways in which that capital funding can be distributed to allow councils to deliver the things that Government is keen to see happen in Wales.

Another missed opportunity that I think is in the Welsh Government's budget is in regard to social care, and that's already been mentioned in this debate today. The Welsh Local Government Association stated that, whilst welcoming the £500 additional payments during the pandemic, they simply do not go far enough to addressing the long-term challenges of the sector, and in particular the concerns with recruitment and retaining staff in that area. This budget doesn't seem to address this issue.

As a party of localism here—and I've mentioned it a number of times in terms of that support and decision making taking place as close to the ground as possible, Minister—you'll already be well aware of my concerns at the introduction of the corporate joint committees, and, in a budget context, the detrimental impact that this may have on the impact of finances of councils. I acknowledge that there has been money made available to councils for the implementation in the first year, but I am concerned at the lack of funding for future years. I would plead that whatever decisions are made in this regard, they're not to the detriment of existing demands and budgets within local government.

I'll wrap up now, Llywydd, because I know you'll be keen for me to do that. When it comes to local government, parts of the Welsh Government budget are going to support councils to make that improvement, but in my view there are too many opportunities that are being missed that could have allowed councils to thrive even further and be even more sustainable. But I'd like to thank the Minister for her continued engagement with members of the committee, which the Chairman John Griffiths chairs, and I'm looking forward to continuing to scrutinise and offer alternatives to our side of the budget. Thanks.

Our discussion today on the draft budget is taking place in exceptional circumstances, circumstances that call for radical and ambitious action, the likes of which haven't been seen before, if we as a nation are to ensure an economic and social recovery that is fair and effective. Yes, the pandemic has placed unprecedented pressure on public spending in Wales, and the cost-of-living crisis that is impacting our communities is intensifying that pressure, especially as the Westminster Government is determined to squeeze households through the cruel decision to cut the universal credit uplift, through increasing national insurance levels. And now, in the face of the astonishing increase in energy prices, they have proposed entirely inadequate measures to support families that are already struggling to keep their heads above water.

But the situation before COVID in terms of social and economic inequality and the level and impact of poverty was shameful, partly caused by a decade, of course, of Conservative ideology that doesn't care a jot about Wales and ordinary people. All too often, rather than being able to plan ahead progressively to transform our future as a nation and to prevent the poverty and inequality that were a problem long before COVID, and to achieve a vision, the Welsh Government's budget has become a shield, forced to defend the people of Wales as much as possible against the merciless steps taken by the Conservatives in London and their desire to safeguard their own interests. But we must underline too the Welsh Government's lack of action in taking the vital policy steps over 20 years and beyond to ensure a fair and vibrant Wales.

Although it is, therefore, very difficult for the Welsh Government and us as a Senedd today within an unequal union and an unfair funding system to achieve our aspirations and the fundamental need to plan ahead in the longer term, I am pleased that the co-operation agreement with Plaid Cymru has succeeded in pushing the programme of government in a more radical direction, as Llyr Gruffydd mentioned, which is quite a feat bearing in mind the current challenges and the Senedd's limited powers. In this debate last year, Plaid Cymru took the opportunity to outline our plans for free school meals for all children, and I look forward to forthcoming budget debates over coming years to ensure that those plans become a reality.

Even though the co-operation agreement is in place, it isn't a Plaid Cymru draft budget that is being debated today, of course—this is the Labour Government's budget, and we are of the view that there are several opportunities being lost to prioritise preventing more families in Wales from falling into poverty and from some of the destructive effects of the cost-of-living crisis. Under the circumstances, I believe that there is a strong case for considering maintaining flexibility in the discretionary assistance fund, for lowering the rent increase cap on social housing to no more than the rate of inflation on a permanent basis, and preventing an increase in train ticket prices.

The increased allocation to local authorities in the budget is to be welcomed, but what discussions have taken place with these authorities in terms of having a debt bonfire for those with council tax arrears, for example—something that would make a major difference to the thousands of households that are already in debt and the thousands more currently being pushed into debt? And what about ensuring that the winter fuel allowance scheme is extended so that everyone who lives in fuel poverty receives it, not just those in receipt of means-tested benefits?

I know from my work on the Equality and Social Justice Committee that scrutiny has been very difficult, bearing in mind the short window of time we had to assess the budget, a window that has been gradually narrowing, as we've already heard, over the past three years. I hope that this multi-year budget means that there will be more of an opportunity for the Senedd and others outwith the Senedd to be able to undertake more thorough scrutiny in years to come. The committee has also recommended that the budget impact assessments should be reviewed, and I hope that measuring and carefully monitoring the impacts of the cost-of-living crisis could be a part of that review. This is vital if the Government is to achieve its programme for government aim of creating an equal Wales.

Yes, every fiscal decision is currently being made at a particularly difficult time, I recognise that, but it must be emphasised that it is the Government's responsibility to mitigate the appalling impact of the cost-of-living disaster. I hope and believe that there will come a time when we can leave behind Westminster's neglect and this unequal union. And as we emerge from the rubble of Brexit and the COVID crisis, we can get to a position where we can be more ambitious and progressive in terms of what we want to achieve as a nation, for our people, so that genuine change happens, and so that the people of Wales receive the economic and social justice they deserve. Thank you.

Jenny Rathbone, chair of the Equality and Social Justice Committee. Jenny.

Diolch, Llywydd. I appreciate the huge difficulties that the Welsh Government is under trying to engineer a budget that doesn't enable the population to fall into even more poverty and inequality at this difficult time, with the cost-of-living crisis that has really taken off in the last couple of months. The Minister for Social Justice pointed out, in evidence to our committee, that low-income households will face a £290 cut in terms of their fall in their benefit income, just simply because the Treasury has decided to link next year's rise in benefits to the inflation rate in September, rather than in December, and that's just a really clear-cut example of some of the problems that I'm sure the Welsh Government is facing.

We had some very useful training on equality-sensitive budget scrutiny, but due to time constraints, this year we decided not to adopt innovative methods such as gender budgeting or poverty-proofing policy proposals in this budget round, but we hope we may be able to come back to that in future years.

We like the fact that there is considerable evidence that the Welsh Government is using the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 as a starting point to frame the shape of its budget, but we also were concerned at the lack of detail provided in the strategic integrated impact assessments that need to be addressed. And I don't think that the Welsh Government has picked up on the fact that Chwarae Teg in particular, in their evidence, said that it really isn't fit for purpose, the strategic impact assessment, because it reads as an acknowledgement of issues faced by specific groups, but it's decoupled from any substantive commitments or actions. This is something that is not new, as the finance, equality, and local government committees, along with the children and young people's committee in the fifth Senedd, did a joint assessment of all this, and really did conclude that the strategic impact assessment did not provide an affective analysis of spending decisions. So, I think there's considerable work to be done on that.

We applaud very much the setting up of the Welsh Government's new equality evidence and data unit. This was also echoed by the well-being of future generations commissioner, because we seriously do need to know exactly how far we are away from the challenges ahead, otherwise we have no idea where we need to put the resources and effort. For example, we don't know how many ethnic minority staff we employ in the childcare sector and in which communities and, without that, we can't really asses how far away we are from having a childcare workforce that reflects its population. We know that the gender pay gap has widened. We just had a publication yesterday from Chwarae Teg that delivered this evidence. If we really want a more equal Wales, we really do need to know where the under-represented groups are, and in which employment sectors, and what we need to do about it.

It is noticeable that, nearly 100 years after universal suffrage for women, it's unacceptable that only 26 per cent of local government councillors are women, and I hope that political parties will pay attention to that matter.

The cost of living is clearly a major consideration, but we really are very pleased at the way in which the Government has addressed the single advice fund and the discretionary assistance fund. I think they've been very useful tools. We heard evidence of the way in which they have driven a rise in benefit uptake by those who are entitled to it, which obviously has brought more money into the Welsh economy. And so that's a real Welsh Government success, and therefore we're very pleased with the increase of £1.7 million in the single advice fund, which is money well spent.

Since our report on the draft budget was published, we've had the opportunity to do our annual scrutiny of the future generations commissioner. So, I just want to briefly speak about some important issues, and pick up on some other issues by Russell George, Mike Hedges and Alun Davies.

First, preventative spend is crucial. I appreciate that performance frameworks in the middle of a pandemic are very difficult to conduct, but we have to think about the costs involved in not having addressed a greater focus in the performance frameworks on preventative spend on healthcare. Otherwise, the increase in health budgets could just not reap the rewards that we need. We know we need to recover from COVID, but if we'd acted earlier on prevention we might have had a lower mortality rate. So, this is a particular important issue.

I need to draw your attention to the time, I'm sorry. You're already out of time and I've got many speakers left, so if you can bring your—

I will sum up by saying our additional concern is on the—. There's no increase at the moment in the well-being of future generations commissioner's budget. She is the lowest-funded commissioner of all the four commissioners. How does the Welsh Government expect their office to take up additional public bodies and support them and scrutinise them without additional money? That simply doesn't add up. In particular, of great concern is the fact that under your new budget alignment exercise, commissioners are no longer going to be able to keep money in reserves for doing statutory inquiries. I think that definitely needs to be challenged because if you don't have money in reserves, and are having to go cap in hand to the Welsh Government to do a statutory review into, perhaps, the Welsh Government, it really does introduce a clear conflict of interest. I think that's something that I would like the Welsh Government to respond on and rectify.

I'm pleased to take part in this important debate. I'd like to focus on the Welsh Government's budget for the economy. The pandemic has had an enormous impact on businesses and livelihoods across Wales, and this budget is an opportunity to inject much-needed resources and support to businesses and set them on the right track post pandemic. However, there are a number of concerns with the draft budget, including concerns around the package of support for businesses affected by the recent restrictions, as well as concerns over the allocations of funding for the visitor economy, research and innovation, skills and several other programme areas. Therefore, if there's one message or statement that is taken from my contribution this afternoon, it's that the allocations of funding must be more explicitly explained, and that the level of detail surrounding Government programmes must be better explained. 

Now, the Economy, Trade and Rural Affairs Committee has taken evidence from the economy Minister, and I'm grateful to him for his time, and for the evidence he provided to the committee. In our evidence session, the committee questioned the Minister specifically around the level of support for businesses affected by the recent restrictions, and Members will see from our report that we've recommended that the Welsh Government consider developing a package of targeted assistance to support economic recovery in those sectors most affected by the recent restrictions. Work by the Night Time Industries Association Wales commission reveals that, on average, during the pandemic, businesses are subject to current debt levels of around £184,000, and that one third of businesses fear closure or failure within a month without urgent proportionate Government support. Members will remember the comments of REKOM UK, which has three nightclubs in Wales; they felt that the sector was being singled out again after the Welsh Government's decision to close the sector. Therefore, I sincerely hope that Ministers will reflect on the recommendations highlighted in the committee's report and work with the sector to protect its sustainability for the future and provide it with the resources that it needs to get back on its feet.

Now, the committee also considered the impact of the draft budget on the visitor economy, and I want to reiterate the Wales Tourism Alliance calls for a comprehensive breakdown of both direct and indirect spend by the Welsh Government on the visitor economy and an accurate assessment of that spend on actual growth. They also made it clear that, unlike the British Tourist Authority, VisitScotland and Tourism Ireland, which are arm's-length national tourism bodies, Visit Wales does not produce a standard, publicly available annual report and set of accounts, and so understanding its budget is extremely difficult for stakeholders. Therefore, perhaps in responding to this debate the finance Minister will tell us what discussions have taken place to make Government funding on tourism more transparent so that we can all better understand its impact and ensure there's some proper accountability, in the way that organisations like Natural Resources Wales already do.

Now, as we rebuild, post pandemic, we have an opportunity to do things differently, and at the heart of the Welsh Government's plans should be a commitment to the skills agenda. In October, Audit Wales published a very serious report on higher and further education, and I want to draw Members' attention to the conclusion that it will be challenging for the Welsh Government to deliver 125,000 all-age apprenticeships and the young person's guarantee in a difficult economic context. I echo the view of Audit Wales, and it's something I've raised with the economy Minister myself: it's crucial that we can see exactly how the degree apprenticeships and young person's guarantee will be financed, and I hope the finance Minister will commit to providing that level of transparency. The Economy, Trade and Rural Affairs Committee's report specifically recommends that the Welsh Government sets out how it intends the allocation for degree apprenticeships to be spent and its plans for expanding the courses and increasing diversity of degree apprentices, in line with the Economy, Infrastructure and Skills Committee's 2020 report. And I hope the Welsh Government responds positively to that specific recommendation. 

Finally, Llywydd, I want to briefly touch on research and innovation and reiterate my previous calls to implement the unfulfilled recommendations of the Diamond and Reid reviews. Professor Reid provided two sets of spending recommendations, one if the Welsh Government had full control of replacement funding, and one without. And so there's no reason why the latter cannot now be implemented. The First Minister has issued a written statement regarding the Welsh Government's five priorities for research, development and innovation, but those priorities will not be realised without those recommendations being implemented. Therefore, once again, I urge the Welsh Government to implement those recommendations, particularly given that the comprehensive spending review provides the Welsh Government with resources to fulfil those recommendations.

And therefore in closing, Llywydd, I believe the biggest ask of the Welsh Government in this draft budget is transparency. In most programme areas, there are vague details but no clear indications of how funding is being allocated, and because of that, scrutiny is limited and it's difficult to accurately determine effectiveness and value for money. And so I urge the Minister to provide that detail and ensure all Government departments are providing information as openly and transparently as possible. Diolch yn fawr. 

I have a few points to make. Firstly, the co-operation agreement and what it sets out to achieve is something that I am actually quite proud of, especially when it comes to free school meals. And it has to be said, to say that the budget doesn't deliver at all for people in Wales is quite out of touch. Is it perfect? No. But, take it from somebody who was on free school meals, that policy alone will go so far in helping families with children who are living in poverty. Have no doubt about that. And it was delivered by Plaid Cymru and Welsh Government, working together. 

I appreciated the response that I had from the Government to a written question on 10 January relating to the front-loading of support for free school meals. The start date for commencing free school meals was highlighted as September 2022. I hope that the Government is looking at how we might be able to speed up this process, specifically rolling out free school meals earlier. The Minister has given a three-year budget this time around, which I appreciate limits flexibility, but is there some way of front-loading the allocated funding? The need is now, it's in the present, amplified by the cost-of-living crisis, and I would very much appreciate hearing whether this is something the Government will consider.

Secondly, the Minister will be aware of my desire to see the education maintenance allowance go further, and I appreciated her response to me in spokespersons' questions last week, when I raised the prospect of expanding the EMA. I want to re-emphasise how much of a lifeline the EMA is for students from disadvantaged backgrounds, especially when we get to post-16 education. We generally accept that education is the best route out of poverty, and retaining students post-16 will have that desired effect of giving further opportunities and skills to those from disadvantaged backgrounds. I know that the Minister herself sees how important the EMA is to those students, and I hope she can give an assurance that if the Government has further funding that it will look to expand the EMA as a priority.

Finally, we note the spending on the climate and nature emergency in the budget, but I am finding it difficult to understand how we can reconcile this spend with the threat to the budget of the future generations commissioner, as Jenny Rathbone indicated, who has played a vital part in advising and ensuring that the Welsh public sector does its part on issues such as decarbonisation and the green transition for future generations. The Public Accounts Committee recognised that,

'The Future Generations Commissioner’s budget has not given her office sufficient capacity to provide public bodies with the levels of practical and sector-specific support that they have called for to implement the Act.'

So, if the Government is serious about making this world-leading approach work, recognising the implementation gaps that exist is all important. Shouldn't the Government be ensuring the commissioner has enough resources to do the job? The commissioner's office budget is already one of the lowest office budgets for any commissioner in Wales, and the specific point that is concerning, just to be clear, is that the future generations commissioner's budget means that they can't carry funds over to the new year. And from my understanding, this is problematic because doing so has been a large part of how her office has operated. This could prevent the commissioner from being able to continue advising public bodies, leaving only enough resources to carry out the statutory duties in terms of monitoring. I'd be very grateful if the Minister could give the Chamber some clarity on that point. 

May I please declare I'm a Flintshire county councillor? The 9.4 per cent uplift to local authorities in Wales is welcome, as is the three-year budget, which will help with planning. I am aware the provisional settlement in England provided a lower uplift of 6.9 per cent to councils, and with the assumption that they raise their council tax by the maximum permitted without a referendum. And much of Scotland's local authority funding was hypothecated. 

During the Minister's statement on the draft budget, I raised concerns about funding for highways maintained by councils, and will continue to do so now. It's a real concern that the capital funding from UK Government to Welsh Government will reduce by 11 per cent by the 2024-25 budget, and under the UK Government's community review fund, 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. I am aware that the major infrastructure works on the A55 currently taking place in north-west Wales, which will also include drainage to make it more resilient to flooding, is being funded with £20 million from Europe through the Welsh Government. 

It has been highlighted in the Local Government and Housing Committee report the importance of maintaining the roads we already have, not just for motorists but for pedestrians and cyclists as well, for whom potholes pose an even bigger threat. The recent additional Welsh Government annual grant funding of £20 million has provided authorities with the opportunity to arrest some deterioration of the highways that has occurred as a direct result of years of Tory austerity. And so, I really welcome the announcement made by the Minister for Local Government and Finance last week that extra in-year capital funding would be given to councils of £70 million, including for highways, which I hope will be ring-fenced as I know the pressure various local government departments are under when setting their capital programme, competing to match fund Welsh Government's funding for commendable, important capital programme schemes, such as twenty-first century schools, childcare provision and building zero-carbon homes for rent.

Going forward, there needs to be a planned maintenance scheme and funding for highways. The Climate Change, Environment and Infrastructure Committee recommends the Welsh Government should set out how the significant backlog in road and highway maintenance can be addressed on both the local and trunk road network, and clarify the basis for the decision not to continue with the public highways refurbishment grant. This should include details of any assessment that was made of the impact of the decision on the local road network, as well as value for money in local highway maintenance, road safety, et cetera.

Over the years, there have been some good examples of joint work on the highway asset undertaken by Welsh Government and councils, such as the national highway maintenance backlog project and asset management contracts. And these projects were developed by Welsh Government and the County Surveyors' Society Wales, the body for local authority highways technical officers. One of the previous positive outcomes from these initiatives included the local government borrowing initiative, which provided much-needed financial support for enhanced maintenance regimes to improve the existing highway network across Wales for the travelling public.

It has been raised here several times that there are also a number of highways in north Wales impacted by the ever-increasing storms as a result of climate change, resulting in full or partial closure over the last two years. This has impacted on communities in Llangoed and Penmon in Anglesey, in Newbridge in Wrexham, the bridge near Tremeirchion in Denbighshire and a landslide in Ffrith, Flintshire, each costing more than the local authorities have funding for. I am aware that the one in Ffrith will cost £3.8 million to resolve. From my recent investigations, I know that there is the emergency finance assistance scheme, formerly known as the Bellwin scheme, which is available to provide emergency financial assistance to help local authorities meet unmeasurable, uninsurable costs that they incur when dealing with the aftermath of an emergency in their area. And there is the emergency resilience fund, which I will make the local authorities aware of. I hope that these important areas will fit the remit of the funding, but I do have some concerns.

I hope that the Welsh Government will continue to work with the WLGA to explore alternative ways of supporting larger capital budgets for local government in future, including the role of supported borrowing to fund the road maintenance backlog, and address roads impacted by natural disasters. Diolch.

I wish to refer Members to my register of interests, as I am a member of both Pembrokeshire County Council and Wales YFC. I would like to begin by thanking the Minister for bringing this debate forward, and by echoing the words of colleague, the MS for Monmouth: the devil certainly lies within the detail. And it is evident from this afternoon's debate that, following a record funding boost from the UK Government, this budget does not go far enough in delivering for the people of Wales. Fundamentally, this budget fails to meet several expectations, which has left me unable to support this afternoon's tabled item. While I welcome the rural affairs Minister's commitment to maintain the Welsh Government's basic payment scheme throughout 2022, the agricultural industry has yet to receive an assurance that BPS will continue into 2023 and until the sustainable farming scheme is launched in 2025. Therefore, can the finance Minister offer any assurance on the future of the BPS during these two years? I'm sure that she will recognise the importance of the basic payment scheme in assisting the agricultural community to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic whilst also ensuring that the industry can survive the rising input of costs and resources. The economic, cultural, and environmental benefits of family farms cannot be understated. I'm sure that the Minister will agree with me that the BPS is as important as ever in terms of underpinning the continuation of high-quality food production in Wales—something I'm afraid the sustainable farming scheme will ignore.

I was pleased to see the Welsh Government bring forward the animal welfare plan, which seeks to improve Wales's animal welfare, including our pets. Better late than never. While I'm still a firm believer that there is more to do, this strategy is a step in the right direction. Indeed, a significant part of this proposal was the Welsh Government's local authority enforcement training project—a pan-Wales training model that sought to develop an industry standard for all local authority enforcement officers to learn from. While this is an important proposal that seeks to establish parity across Wales, it must also be met with adequate, serious and ring-fenced funding that underpins the project's very purpose. Indeed, the rural affairs Minister was right when she said, and I quote:

'if the enforcement doesn't work, then you're not going to make any progress'.

The financial cost of enforcing the Welsh Government's new animal welfare regulations must not be allowed to fall on our overstretched and under-resourced local authorities. Whilst I acknowledge that local authorities have received an uplift in their funding for the 2022-23 period, I remain concerned that there are no safeguards in place to ensure that this trajectory of funding continues past the point at which the animal welfare plan has concluded.

Yet, perhaps more concerningly, this is not the only example where this is the case. The Welsh Government's new water regulations have significantly increased the burden on the Welsh Government's own body, Natural Resources Wales. The Water Resources (Control of Agricultural Pollution) (Wales) Regulations, more commonly known to us all as the NVZs, will add a massive workload to NRW, requiring an estimated 60 extra full-time staff to deliver the minimum viable product, or a further 200 staff to deliver the regulations in their full form. Yet, there is no mention of this in the Welsh Government's draft budget narrative. Instead of granting the organisation the funding that it needs to meet their staffing shortfalls, they have instead received a total of £7.2 million in capital funds in order to provide an updated operational ICT infrastructure. I believe this to be a total misprioritisation. Whilst I still think that there are better policies to improve water quality here in Wales, if this Government insists on NVZs, then at least fund NRW properly so that they can do the job in enforcing the regulations. Whilst the Government may try to dress this budget up as a positive, the reality of the situation is that it fundamentally fails to meet the policy narrative of this Government. It does little to touch the sides of the severe funding constraints not only facing our local authorities but agencies such as Natural Resources Wales, who, on a daily basis, are having to balance the weight of Welsh Government regulations against their own ability to deliver on their core aims and objectives. Happy to give way.

I understand your argument that Natural Resources Wales needs more money to chase all the people who are polluting our rivers, but I wonder whether you could indicate where you think the money might need to come from to actually do that? For example, would you support the Farmers Union of Wales's proposal to cap basic payments, so that we're not funding millionaires?

Well, absolutely, and we've talked in this Chamber a lot with regard to Glastir woodland creation funds going across the border to other countries that are buying up—other companies that are buying up— prime Welsh agricultural land for tree afforestation being agreeable and acceptable to this Government in receiving grant funding through Glastir woodland. So, there is finance available.

However, I will make way, as I'm conscious of the time. We cannot ignore the financial implications of instructing both local authorities and agencies to implement and enforce Welsh Government policy. If the Welsh Government is serious about delivering these policies, they must wake up to the reality of having to enforce them, the bottom line of which is cost. Diolch yn fawr.

I wish to thank the Minister, Rebecca Evans, for her approach and manner of engagement with the Senedd Finance Committee scrutiny of this very fair, green and progressive draft budget. And I also wish to thank fellow finance Members and our very stalwart Chair.

Wales has endured and continues to endure a global pandemic that has led to the very fundamentals and the very paradigm of our Welsh economy being rocked. These last two years have taken a great toll on all of us, but, for some, the very ultimate sacrifice, and we in this place must never forget.

Llywydd, as we potentially see on the horizon life after the pandemic, we are now looking at a very sharply rising inflation base, and a Tory cost-of-living and energy crisis that dramatically impacts on the lives of every man, woman and child in my constituency of Islwyn. Unbelievably, in one of the richest countries of the world in 2022, fellow citizens are faced with the unenviable, the non-choice of heating or eating. This is not, as the Tories seem to think, political rhetoric or a bad joke; it is real, because some people will die this year because they cannot afford to heat their homes, and all this as rickets, tuberculosis and malnutrition have returned to our United Kingdom hospitals due to a non-operating, broken welfare system.

The background to this dangerous mix is a Tory UK Government led by a Prime Minister who is, and I quote, 'not a total clown'—the words of his new communication director, Guto Harri. And whilst Laurel and Hardy are happily singing 'I will survive', the Welsh populace is struggling every single day simply to put food on the table for their families. This dichotomy sums up the Tory myopia that we see in the Chamber, and Boris and his Tory UK Government has finally admitted that it will not fully replace EU funding to Wales for three years, despite saying constantly to us and within this Chamber that the people of Wales would not be a penny poorer when the UK left the European Union. How can we trust such commentary?

Whilst the Tories have let down Wales, this Welsh Labour Government budget is standing up for Welsh people, and I implore, I implore, the Welsh Tories opposite to do the same. In contrast, the Welsh Labour Government is investing close to £1.3 billion—[Interruption.]—I would, but I'm really conscious of the time and I would like to finish; not on this occasion, Janet—investing close to £1.3 billion into our Welsh NHS service, standing up for local authorities, who've had an additional £750 million direct investment to the revenue support grant, and an additional £100 million targeted at mental health, supporting the social care sector with additional funding to local authorities to meet the additional costs of the real living wage, investing in education with an additional £320 million to the end of term to continue education reform and support across Wales.

And it is right that the Welsh Government and our economy Minister are investing in the personal learning pilots and the young person's guarantee, and that the Finance Committee recommendations around drafting and evaluating budget determination, which takes in at source the very poorest in our society, who remain women, are accepted by Welsh Government. I welcome the feedback on the new shifts around strengthening BAGE and the new budget improvement advisory group. But, as Jenny Rathbone has already scoped to us today, it is absolutely important that Wales has exemplary holistic and intersectional strategic impact assessment processes, and that we explore gender budgeting for Wales.

It is right that the Finance Committee does this work and drafts and evaluates such recommendations. The Welsh Labour Government, to conclude, Llywydd, is investing £366 million over the next three years to deliver 125,000 all-age apprenticeships, investing in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, in cyber, in security and our future generations. And it's today, not tomorrow, we are investing in Wales's future. We are investing in the people of Wales, and I commend this Welsh Government's draft budget to this place. A stronger Wales, a fairer Wales and a greener Wales—a draft budget that seeks a just Wales. Thank you.

It's a pleasure to take part in such an important debate. It's what's widely considered as one of the highlights of the Welsh political calendar.

Four weeks ago, I was highly critical of the impact this budget would have on our health and care services. During those four weeks, the situation has become much clearer. The situation facing health and social care is bleak, and the impact this budget will have on the provision of health and social care is minimal at best. I won't regurgitate my arguments on the real living wage—I've spoken about it quite a lot—but it has become clear that I am not the only one to voice concerns. The social care fair work forum state that the real living wage won't be sufficient to support, retain or recruit care workers. The Trades Union Congress was more damning. They said £9.90 an hour was too low and that the settlement fails to include other factors that make up a fair pay reward. As the National Care Forum point out, staff shortages are already placing significant pressures on social care services, and they expect the situation to worsen over the coming months.

This budget was an ideal opportunity to address the staffing shortages with an ambitious deal for staff, yet Welsh Government opted to do the bare minimum. They could have chosen to align social care with NHS pay scales, a move that would cost around £54 million by the Welsh Government's own estimates. Indeed, they would rather go for the cheap option, according to many in the sector, which will do little to improve a worsening crisis. With the savings made, they decided to spend £10 million on preparing the ground to eliminate private profit from the childcare sector. That should tell you all you need to know about this Government and their budget. Rather than rewarding and valuing our hardworking care staff, they would prefer to spend public money on pursuing an ideological vendetta against the private sector—a private sector that provide over three quarters of the care in Wales. [Interruption.] Yes, indeed.

Thank you. In regard to that last statement, we all know that we need a vibrant mixed economy in terms of care, whether that's in nursery or childcare or in elder care. Would you also recognise that when we're dealing with a paucity of money within the public purse, due to the Welsh block grant cuts in real terms—in real terms—that—

No, that's enough of an intervention. I'd just guide Members who have refused interventions themselves to perhaps think about whether there's time for interventions at this point. Gareth Davies.

Diolch, Llywydd. It was more of a speech, I think, than an intervention.

But this is the private sector that makes up 80 per cent. It's not just a tiny little drop in the ocean; it is the ocean. Shortages in the care sector are having a debilitating impact on our NHS. As the Minister herself pointed out, we have around 1,000 medically fit people in our hospital beds unable to be discharged because of the lack of social care. But this budget's put additional pressures on an already creaking NHS. On the surface of it, it looks like the budget for the NHS is a generous one, but, like everything in this Government, and what's been mentioned a few times in this debate, the devil lies in the detail.

The NHS recovery fund is unlikely to make a dent in the vast black hole. Health boards continue to massively overspend, and we have some of the worst waiting times in the UK. More than half of Welsh patients are waiting more than 26 weeks to start treatment. These are not just numbers on a balance sheet; they are people's lives: hundreds of thousands of people suffering due to delays, thousands of patients dying because of delays. Where are the radical proposals to tackle the ongoing crisis in health and care? They don't appear to be on the Welsh Government's radar. No COVID-lite regional surgical hubs. Instead, we have a cut to the capital budget, which has worried NHS leaders, as they will now be unable to provide up-to-date equipment or premises to treat patients. What we have is a draft budget that fails to deliver for health and care, and fails for Welsh citizens and patients, and I urge Members to support our amendment and reject this budget.

Huw Irranca-Davies, Chair of the Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee.

Thank you, Llywydd. I very much welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate on the budget as Chair of the Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee, as it marks the first time that this committee has undertaken budget scrutiny.

So, this also represents an important milestone in the scrutiny of the Welsh Government's justice-related spending, and I hope that, through our work, we start to shine a light on this very important issue. As part of this greater scrutiny and transparency, we're very grateful to the First Minister for responding to our request and providing information on justice spend prior to our session with the Counsel General. This information identified broadly how resources are allocated to justice-related activity within each main expenditure group and across various ministerial portfolios, and that is truly helpful and very welcome.

Now, in all, we made seven recommendations that, given that justice spending is currently not separately disaggregated, generally sought to find more clarity, while looking ahead to how that information should be provided in future budgets as well. So, for example, we recommended that the Welsh Government should provide more detail about how the £4.2 million allocated for Welsh Tribunals is used, not least given the important role that the tribunals have played in responding to the challenges of coronavirus and the need to operate remotely, which has been subject to debate in this Senedd Siambr before.

Not surprisingly, perhaps, we recommended that the Welsh Government should work towards disaggregating spending on justice. In addition, we also recommended that its justice work programme should contain measurable actions and specific programmes that are fully costed, with an annual report highlighting progress in delivery and evaluating outcomes of individual components. We believe that our seven recommendations, if implemented, will help the Welsh Government deliver a recommendation of the Commission on Justice in Wales, namely for the Welsh Government to strengthen leadership and accountability on justice matters. And I noticed in the introductory remarks that the Welsh Government is looking at the recommendations going forward.

So, I'd now like to turn to the important matter of the Welsh Government's use of UK Bills to legislate and its consequential legislative consent memoranda. Now, surprisingly, their use has become a prominent feature—at least so far in this sixth Senedd—of the Welsh Government's legislative delivery of their policy objectives. Now, putting aside for the moment the merits or otherwise of this approach, the justification used by the Welsh Government has brought to the fore the issue of the Welsh Government's capacity to legislate and the resources allocated to this task. And, indeed, this was picked up by my colleague on the committee, Alun Davies, earlier. In a letter prior to our evidence suggestion with the Counsel General, the Counsel General told us that, and I quote:

'there is a need for the Welsh Government to consider each UK Government Bill carefully, and to balance the need to defend the current devolution settlement so far as possible'— so far as possible—

'and the principle that we should legislate ourselves here in Wales, with opportunities that may arise to improve the law for citizens of Wales', looking to the other end of the M4.

Now, these comments are striking because of their constitutional significance and their relevance to fundamental democratic principles—subsidiarity, devolution and so on. Moreover, we must not forget that the function of legislating is at the heart of this Senedd's role. In addition, there needs to be openness and transparency about how the legislative commitments in the Welsh Government's programme for government are to be delivered. So, it's for all these reasons that it is important to understand how the Welsh Government is budgeting to ensure that there is sufficient capacity to legislate and bring forward its legislative proposals—matters that, incidentally, I raised with the finance Minister last week here in Plenary.

So, the three final recommendations arising from our scrutiny of the draft budget try to aim to ascertain baseline data, to try and better understand the legislative challenges faced by the Welsh Government. We recognise that some of the current challenges stem from the consequences of leaving the EU and the coronavirus pandemic. However, as the Counsel General acknowledged, we also need to start thinking about the rest of the sixth Senedd and beyond. So, in particular, we're keen to learn about the level of resources available within the draft budget to increase the Welsh Government’s capacity to deliver made-in-Wales legislation, including recruiting new staff and increasing expertise—other Members have touched on this as well. Given that we've been making primary legislation for some 15 years already, we trust that this will be building on the existing training and recruiting strategies and not starting from a zero base. 

So, my thanks, in closing, to committee colleagues and our clerking team for the diligent scrutiny and analysis, as always, and we look forward to the Minister's response to the debate.

The Minister for finance to reply to the debate. Rebecca Evans.

Diolch, and thank you to all colleagues for what I think has been a really, really useful debate. And there have been some incredibly constructive contributions, which I know that I and my ministerial colleagues, who will have been listening carefully, will be reflecting on as we move towards the final budget and move towards further decisions that we need to take in respect of supporting people in Wales through the cost-of-living crisis. And, as I said in my introductory remarks, I intend to say more on our approach to doing that very shortly.

But there have been so many important points raised in the debate, and obviously I'm not going to be able to cover them all in my closing remarks, but what I do commit to doing is ensuring that all of my colleagues and myself respond in full to committee recommendations ahead of the final budget debate, and I look forward to being able to do that.

So, I just want to pick up some of the points that were raised in respect of the context in which we find ourselves. Of course it's positive that we have a three-year spending outlook, but the figures that we have just don't undo that decade of austerity. And a number of colleagues have referred to the fact that the profiling of the spend over the next three years is very difficult with that front-loaded resource profile in particular, and the fact that between 2022-23 and 2024-25, our resource funding increases by less than 0.5 per cent in real terms. I mean, that is going to be challenging for public services as we move forward, and a number of colleagues have expressed concerns about that, and I share those concerns.

We've heard lots of calls for additional capital spending—lots of hand-wringing on the Conservative benches in respect of the capital allocations that have been made by the Welsh Government. But, the fact that we haven't been able to allocate as much capital as we would wish is simply a reflection of our capital budget handed down by the UK Government. Overall, our capital funding will fall in cash terms in every single year of our three-year spending review period, and will be 11 per cent lower in 2024-25 than it is in the current year. So, you know, if Conservative colleagues want to know why we're not investing more in capital in local government and in health, the answer is right there in the UK Government's spending review.

Colleagues in Plaid Cymru have pointed out this afternoon that our budget in 2024-25 will be nearly £3 billion lower than if it had increased in line with the economy since 2010-11. Imagine the budget we could be debating this afternoon if we had that funding available to us. And, of course, that doesn't even take into account the challenges in respect of the lack of EU replacement funding.

I do want to turn to borrowing and our capital programme. I just want to confirm that the 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 in the fiscal framework as it stands, and of course we continue to press for further flexibilities in that particular area because it's really important that we maximise all of the resources at our disposal. And we will maintain our approach to funding investment by maximising the drawdown of the least expensive forms of capital first. So, as I described, typically using first our block grant settlement and then looking to borrow. But we'll only then move on to use those more expensive forms of capital financing once we've exhausted our general capital, of course. And innovative finance models, whilst they are clearly of interest to us, as you'll have seen through the mutual investment model, we would look to potentially deploy those as well, but only to do so in an appropriate way. And this is the first time that we're using the overallocation of general capital. That does, as Mike Hedges described, give us the opportunity, I think, to stretch every pound available to us, but it is a different approach to those that we've taken in recent years.

And, again, we're taking a different approach in respect of our approach to reserves. So, as part of the multi-year budget, we have a new fiscal strategy to maximise the available funding on the resource side. Unlike in previous years when spending plans have fully utilised the £125 million annual drawdown limit, our plans don't assume the full drawdown limit from the Welsh reserve from 2023-24, and that's because we will use that Welsh reserve to manage the in-year financial position without holding any unallocated DEL, and drawdowns will be included within the appropriate supplementary budgets.

I mention that because, really, there is no separate pot of money now from which to allocate additional funding. So, we've heard lots of calls, particularly from the Conservatives, about other areas where they would like us to invest, where we haven't gone far enough, but we really do need now those alternative proposals to come forward in terms of where the Conservatives would invest and where they would take the money from, because you can't just have one side of that story told. The Conservative spokesperson referred to costed plans. Please go ahead and publish those costed plans, because we'd be really, really keen to see them and to see where those cuts would come and where you wouldn't share our priorities within the budget.

Just briefly on the loss of EU funding, under the UK Government's community renewal fund, we'll receive only £46 million this year, and that's compared to at least £375 million we would have received from EU structural funds from January 2021. Clearly, exiting the European Union isn't working for Wales, and the UK Government does need to stick to the promises that it's made.

It's quite incredible to hear Conservatives talking in support of our rural communities when Wales's farmers and rural communities will lose out on at least £106 million of replacement EU funding over the spending review period, and that's on top of the £137 million not provided by the UK Government in this financial year. So, clearly, there is a lack of coherence between what the Conservatives would like to see for rural Wales and what the UK Government is allowing to be delivered.

Several colleagues have mentioned the carbon analysis of the budget. I think it's really important that we put front and centre the climate and nature emergency, as you've seen within the budget, and I think that I'd point colleagues to the range of documentation that is published alongside the budget, but also then to the net-zero delivery plan, so that's where you'll see those carbon impacts and the actions that we're taking, using all of those levers, with the role then of the budget to sit alongside that and fund those actions where the evidence supports the need to invest.

We've also built on what was really, really good work, which we published alongside the draft budget last year, in the chief economist's report. That really did lead us to consider the need to have a zero-based review of our general capital budgets and then establish a new 10-year Wales infrastructure and investment strategy. And we're the only part of the UK to have done a zero-based review of capital budgets, and it's a really uncomfortable thing to do, because you do end up having very difficult conversations with colleagues because there's no assumption that previous capital will be rolled forward, but it's the right thing to do in the sense of ensuring that our capital budgets are better aligned with our ambitions in the environmental space.

And, equally, gender budgeting is a really, really important part of our approach now to our budget. We remain fully committed to ensuring that the Welsh Treasury drives this forward, but also we've got ambitions to be amongst those world leaders, and we engage very frequently with the Nordic nations, with New Zealand and others with an interest in this area, to ensure that we're learning from good practice elsewhere and that we are starting to really embed the approach. So, last year, we started this important work through the personal learning accounts, and that's ongoing, but now we're looking to progress the work in this area with two further pilots that we'll be undertaking in active travel and also the young person's guarantee. So, lots of really important work on gender budgeting. But, with gender budgeting and with carbon impact assessments, I know that we are just really at the start of a really important journey, and keen, I think, to go along that journey with Members of this Senedd who have a shared interest in these agendas, because they are so important and so shared, I think.

So, just to respond to some of the specific points now in terms of allocations, I want to talk about health because obviously that is the largest part of the budget. We're committing £170 million recurrently to support the transformation of planned care to help tackle the backlog of patients whose treatments have been delayed as a result of the pandemic, and a further £20 million recurrently to support the focus on value-based healthcare, delivering the outcomes that really matter to patients.

Lots of colleagues were quite rightly concerned about social care. So, we are committed to prioritising social care, and I do think you can see that in this budget with the additional £60 million direct additional funding to drive forward those reforms. In 2022-23 alone, we're providing over an additional £250 million for social services, and that includes £180 million within the local government settlement and direct investment of £45 million plus £50 million of additional social care capital relative to 2021-22. So, I think our commitment to social care is absolutely there and it's very, very clear.

Mental health, again, is something that quite rightly has come through the debate as being a critical area for many colleagues. We've allocated an additional £100 million up to 2024-25 to prioritise mental health and well-being, and that includes an additional £50 million package in 2022-23, and includes additional funding to support the implementation of the mental health workforce plan, and, of course, additional funding for young people's mental health.

I'm probably testing the Llywydd's patience a bit because I'm just about to go out of my time—

Just about.

—but I just want to really conclude by again pointing to the cost-of-living announcements that I'll be making as soon as I possibly can in respect of how Welsh Government will continue to support those individuals affected by it. And also, to thank again the committees for the work that's been done in scrutiny and to point to the fact that my colleagues and I will be responding to many of the detailed questions that have been raised throughout the debate this afternoon.

Thank you to everyone who has been involved in the preparation of the draft budget. I think it really does signify a strong working partnership across the Senedd, where we have progressive people who want to show all of Wales that we are prepared to work together and to find common ground to deliver what's needed for Wales.

So, in conclusion and in closing, I think this budget does deliver on our values and our ambitious promises for people in Wales, and the package of funding outlined here uses every lever to provide the foundations for our recovery and to move us towards a stronger, fairer and greener Wales. Diolch, Llywydd.

The proposal is to agree the amendment. Does any Member object? [Objection.] Yes, there are objections, therefore we will defer voting under this item until voting time. 

And that brings us to voting time. We will take a short break to make technical preparations for those votes.

Voting deferred until voting time.

Plenary was suspended at 18:43.

The Senedd reconvened at 18:47, with the Llywydd in the Chair.