Autumn Budget 2024

Baroness Wilcox of Newport Excerpts

Monday 11th November 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Wilcox of Newport (Lab)]

I welcome this Budget, which represents a fundamental transformation in our nation’s fiscal priorities. After 14 years of Conservative government that has impacted profoundly negatively on our public services, this UK Labour Government’s first Budget marks a decisive shift towards rebuilding our society on foundations of fairness and social justice after over a decade of austerity. The evidence before us is unambiguous.

In the previous Administration’s last Budget, Wales received £1 million in capital funding. Under this Labour Administration, Wales is receiving £235 million, which is 235 times more investment in Welsh communities. It is not mere figures but tangible means to repair schools, construct hospitals and build the homes our communities so desperately need.

The Benches opposite may offer criticisms, as in that barnstorming opening speech by the noble Lord, Lord Johnson, but they surely must acknowledge in their quieter moments the profound impact that their approach to fiscal management has had on communities across the United Kingdom. When they question the decision to reform taxation of non-domiciled individuals and second homes, they reveal their priorities. This is fundamentally about fairness. Those who have benefited most from our society must contribute appropriately to its renewal.

Let us consider what this Budget offers for my home country of Wales: £774 million of additional revenue for this year, £695 million the following year, and £235 million in capital funding—a real-terms increase of 7% compared with the previous 0.5% annual average. These are not abstract numbers; they translate into meaningful change for communities in Wales.

I draw attention to the redressing of historic injustices. My dear late stepfather was a collier. He followed his own father underground aged 15 in the early 1950s. Unfortunately, the Labour Government’s decision has come far too late for him, but the transfer of £1.5 billion of the mineworkers’ pension scheme investment fund to its rightful beneficiaries demonstrates respect for our mining communities, who have waited far too long for such recognition. To those in the House who question the approach to taxation while our public services face such challenges, I ask: what interests do you serve? The Budget delivers an above-inflation 6.7% increase in the national living wage and reduces universal credit deductions from 25% to 15%, benefiting 1.2 million of our poorest households, and it secures a 4.1% increase in state pensions against 1.7% inflation.

Furthermore, the Labour Government are investing in Wales’s future through £25 million for essential coal-tip safety, new hydrogen projects in Bridgend and Milford Haven, and £80 million for the Port Talbot steelworkers—funding that was promised but not set aside and never delivered by the previous Tory Government. Under the leadership of my noble friend Lady Morgan of Ely in Wales, working in partnership with our UK Government, we can now advance a truly progressive agenda. Every pound will be directed where it delivers maximum benefit: our NHS, our schools, and supporting vulnerable families. The Treasury’s analysis, available to all, demonstrates that households in the lowest income brackets will benefit the most significantly, while necessary tax increases will affect only those with the highest incomes.

This is the hallmark of progressive governance, delivering for Wales and across the United Kingdom. This Budget represents not merely a series of fiscal decisions but a fundamental reset, moving beyond the policies of the past towards a fairer, more prosperous future for all our communities.