3. What assessment has the Minister made of the impact of the UK Government's autumn statement on the management of Welsh Government resources? OQ58770

Despite some additional revenue funding through the autumn statement, this has not gone anywhere close to meeting the gap in the Welsh Government’s budget. This means that Ministers face difficult decisions as we prepare for this year’s draft budget.

Thank you, Minister. I can only imagine how difficult those decisions are going to be, because, as you say, the money that has come from Westminster, while it's an increase, doesn't cover those dreadful inflationary pressures that public services are facing the length and breadth of Wales. Minister, can you give us an indication of the guiding principles that will be followed in determining where and how much Government money is spent? Would you pledge to ensure that when decisions are made, maintaining the best mental health and well-being of the population will be a priority for all Ministers?

I'm very grateful for that question. Just to give an idea of how we're approaching the budget discussions across Government, we are looking, really, very, very much so, at three particular aims. First, obviously, is to table a balanced budget, and, actually, that is much harder than you would imagine, given the fact that there is such a gap in funding, and that's where the difficult decisions will take place, in terms of what we're able to continue funding, where we might have to reprioritise funding away from. But also the second of the key areas that we want to continue to protect is public services. So, the protection of public services is our second pillar. And the third is the continued delivery of our programme for government, because of course that contains so many of our promises to people in Wales, and we're focused on delivering that. It might be that we end up delivering some things over a longer period than we'd initially anticipated. That's something that we need to consider, particularly, I think, on the capital side, where our capital budget falls in every year of this spending review, and there was no additional capital whatsoever in the autumn statement. So, again, that's the kind of difficult decision that colleagues might need to take. But just to reassure the Member that public services, by which we are obviously talking about health there, will remain a priority for the budget process. 

Will the Minister agree that the UK Government's allocation of £1.2 billion is a reflection of the Conservative Government's plan to level up Wales by investing properly into our country, whilst the Welsh Government spend millions on continuous failed socialist projects, such as the failed state ownership of Cardiff Airport, the failed state ownership of a farm in Powys, and the failed state ownership of train services, while people in north Wales miss out on this funding? Is it not about time the Welsh Labour Government took ownership of the taxpayers' money and spent it properly? And will the Minister outline how she will work with the UK Conservative Government so that my constituents don't miss out?

Your constituents are going to miss out. Every constituent that any of us has is going to miss out, because there's such a gap in public funding, and that's not going to come without without implications for public service delivery and for the services that people receive in their communities. So, I think that we need to just get real about the level of the challenges that we're facing in the budget. So, that's an important point.

So, no, the autumn statement doesn't by any means suggest that the UK Government is serious about levelling up. Quite the contrary—authorities are being denied the opportunity to spend any of the shared prosperity fund funding in this financial year, contrary to the previous commitments from the UK Government. And let's remember that, had we remained in the European Union, the long-term, multi-annual EU programmes would have begun almost two years ago in 2021—£375 million additional funding coming to us here in Wales every year. That's been lost, so what the UK Government is presenting as an offer in exchange for that to level up just doesn't even begin to come close.