3. Statement by the Minister for Finance and Local Government: Welsh Government's response to the Chancellor's statement on the medium-term fiscal plan

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:20 pm on 18 October 2022.

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Photo of Carolyn Thomas Carolyn Thomas Labour 3:20, 18 October 2022

Diolch. When I was a councillor having to deal with 10 years of austerity and cuts, we often used to think what's the point in having Government setting policy and Parliament setting policy when we didn't have the budget or resources to actually deliver them. Now the situation has got much worse under the chaos and inflationary pressures brought on by the UK Government. Cardiff's gap is £53 million that they're having to face. Conwy, Wrexham and Flintshire are looking at a £26 million funding gap, so they're going to have to make really tough decisions. They said if they stopped collecting all the waste, cut all the public transport, if they stopped cutting grass at play areas and closed swimming pools, they still would not have enough to fill the gap. It is dire. The health energy pressure is £90 million to £100 million, I learnt last week. Without cutting health services to fund that gap, when nurses need a pay rise, we have huge waiting lists, and earlier we heard about ambulance waiting times—. How are we going to fill that gap? I just don't know at all. I know you understand, but I don't think the UK Government and Jeremy Hunt understand. And the problem is that cuts like these pit people against each other as well, in different services, which is totally wrong, when, fundamentally, we need more investment in public services.