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.

Wales: Public Services

Baroness Wilcox of Newport Excerpts

Tuesday 5th November 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Livermore (Lab)]

I am grateful to the noble Lord for his question. The Welsh Government settlement for 2025-26 is the largest in real terms of any since devolution. The Welsh Government are receiving £21 billion in 2025-26, including an additional £1.7 billion for the operation of the Barnett formula, with £1.5 billion resource spending and £250 million in capital. On the noble Lord’s second question, the Chief Secretary has a very good working relationship with the Welsh Government’s Cabinet Secretary for Finance and spoke to him on the morning of the Budget. The Chief Secretary also met the devolved government Finance Ministers in person on 3 October for the most recent finance Interministerial Standing Committee.

[Baroness Wilcox of Newport (Lab)]

My Lords, the Minister in the Welsh Government said after the Budget:

“It is clear the Chancellor is listening to what Wales needs. I look forward to working with the UK Government on our other priorities”.


Can my noble friend confirm the strength of that renewed working relationship after what we have experienced for the past 14 years?

[Lord Livermore (Lab)]

I am grateful for my noble friend’s question; it is gratifying to hear what she says. As I said, the Welsh Government settlement for 2025-26 is the largest in real terms since devolution, and Treasury Ministers are in regular and constant contact with their counterparts in Wales and the other devolved Administrations.

Devolved Budget for Wales: Inflation

Baroness Wilcox of Newport Excerpts

Wednesday 15th March 2023 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Baroness Wilcox of Newport]

To ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the potential impact of inflation on the devolved budget for Wales.

[The Parliamentary Secretary, HM Treasury (Baroness Penn) (Con)]

The Welsh Government are well funded to meet their responsibilities. The 2021 spending review set the largest annual settlement in real terms since the devolution Act. The settlement is still growing in real terms over the spending review period. The Welsh Government also have their own tax and borrowing powers. In addition, the UK Government are supporting households UK-wide with the cost of living, supporting businesses, charities and the public sector with their energy bills.

[Baroness Wilcox of Newport (Lab)]

I thank the Minister for that Answer, but I need to make her and the House aware that Wales is facing a perfect storm of pressures, with austerity, the pandemic, the cost of living and high inflation. Our economy and public services in Wales are very fragile. Simply put, it seems that the UK Government have abandoned Wales to meet these pressures alone. With the funding from last autumn’s Budget Statement, inflation means that our settlement is still worth up to £3 billion less in real terms and £1 billion less next year. What can the people of Wales hope for from the UK Government’s latest Budget today—more of less?

[Baroness Penn (Con)]

My Lords, I reiterate to the noble Baroness—and to the Welsh Government—that the Welsh Government, in the 2021 spending review, received the largest annual settlement in real terms since the devolution Act. I also say to the noble Baroness that, with the inflation that we are facing across the country, the budget is still growing in real terms across the spending review period. The Autumn Statement included additional funding for Wales, and today’s Budget means that the Welsh Government will receive an additional £180 million through the Barnett formula across the next two years. Measures that we are taking across the UK in today’s Budget will benefit Wales: the extension of the energy price guarantee; the freezing of fuel duty; and the doubling of draught relief, which will support more than 2,000 pubs and bars in Wales. There is much to be welcomed in today’s Budget for Wales.

Wales: Additional Financial Resources

Baroness Wilcox of Newport Excerpts

Wednesday 18th January 2023 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Penn (Con)]

My Lords, I am aware of the views of Lord Barnett, to whom the formula’s name relates. The point my noble friend makes about needs is exactly what we tried to build into the fiscal framework in 2016. There was an assessment of additional needs in Wales. It said that, on a needs basis, it should be at least 15 % more than the equivalent in the UK. That was recommended by the independent Holtham commission, and that is something that the UK is taking forward.

[Baroness Wilcox of Newport (Lab)]

My Lords, while I would not wish necessarily to disagree with the Minister, I got my figures directly from the Welsh Government. Their overall budget this year, and in 2024-25, will be no higher in real terms than it was in 2022. Their capital budget will be 8.1% lower. With post-EU funding arrangements, Wales has been left with a £1.1 billion shortfall, and it is no longer able to fund three key areas: apprenticeships—Wales used to fund 5,000 apprenticeship places every year; practical support for those furthest from work through the communities for work scheme and ReAct for those in need of redundancy support; and higher education has been shut out of the levelling-up process, and hundreds of jobs are now at risk. Why is Wales being underfunded by the UK Government?

[Baroness Penn (Con)]

I have to disagree with the noble Baroness on most of the points in her question. As I have set out to this House, Wales receives 20% more funding per head than the UK equivalent, and that is over its needs-based assessment as recommended by the independent Holtham commission. The spending review set out the largest annual settlement in real terms since the devolution Act and the Welsh Government also have their own tax and borrowing powers. It is important that the Welsh Government are well funded, and that is what the Government have done.