Shared Prosperity Fund: Wales Debate
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Baroness Smith of Llanfaes
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Shared Prosperity Fund: Wales
Baroness Smith of Llanfaes Excerpts(2 weeks, 3 days ago)
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Lord Khan of Burnley (Lab)
My Lords, the noble Baroness makes an important point. The short answer is yes: we will ensure that our counterparts in Wales have those discussions. I will pass the message on to my honourable friend in the other place so that the third sector is also a part of his discussions with the Welsh Government on how we can work closely together as central government, devolved government and the third sector.
Baroness Smith of Llanfaes (PC)
My Lords, at present, Wales gets 23% of the shared prosperity fund. If the SPF is included in local government funding in England, this risks money being redirected through the Barnett formula. Will the Minister agree that a needs-based formula is better than a population-based formula for funding?
Lord Khan of Burnley (Lab)
I understand the noble Baroness’s point. However, we have to recognise that there were no plans from the previous Government for the funding going to the devolved Governments. We have brought in a transitional year to prepare for post March 2026. All these conversations are yet to be had. I cannot make any particular comment on them, but I will come back to the noble Baroness once we finalise our proposals for after March 2026.