Draft Government of Wales Act 2006 (Variation of Borrowing Power) Order 2018

Jonathan Edwards Excerpts

Tuesday 27th November 2018 General Committees

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Wales (Nigel Adams)]

I beg to move,

That the Committee has considered the draft Government of Wales Act 2006 (Variation of Borrowing Power) Order 2018.

As always, Mr Sharma, it is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship. The draft order will deliver on the commitment that the Government made in the St David’s Day agreement to extend the Welsh Government’s borrowing powers to enable Welsh Ministers to issue bonds to borrow for capital expenditure.

The Welsh Government already have extensive capital borrowing powers. The Wales Act 2014 provided that Welsh Ministers may borrow up to £500 million to fund capital investment. Those powers went hand in hand with the tax powers in the Act, which the Assembly has used to establish the land transaction tax and the landfill disposal tax. They placed fiscal responsibility and greater accountability at the heart of the Welsh devolution settlement. Following the historic agreement with the Welsh Government on the fiscal framework for Wales in December 2016, the Wales Act 2017 doubled the borrowing limit to £1 billion, with an annual limit of £150 million, in anticipation of Welsh rates of income tax coming on stream from April next year.

[Jonathan Edwards (Carmarthen East and Dinefwr) (PC)]

I am most grateful to the Minister for giving way so early in his speech. Will he give a categorical assurance that the extended powers under our consideration have nothing to do with the Budget announcement on page 66 of the Red Book that tied extra borrowing powers to a specific project in Wales? Will he reassure me that the Welsh Government will be able to utilise the borrowing capacity that comes with those powers as they so wish?

[Nigel Adams]

I can certainly give the hon. Gentleman those assurances. The draft order is about adapting the means by which the Welsh Government can borrow, whereas what was announced in the Budget was about the additional amount that will be considered during the spending review.

As the hon. Gentleman rightly says, my right hon. Friend the Chancellor announced in the Budget that at the spending review we will undertake a review of the Welsh Government’s capital borrowing powers and consider whether the borrowing cap should be increased by up to £300 million to support the delivery of a new M4 relief road. I know that many people and businesses have called for improvements to that vital artery of Wales; no doubt they welcomed that announcement.

The draft order is not about changing the amount that Welsh Ministers can borrow, but about providing greater flexibility and choice for the Welsh Government over the sources of borrowing that they wish to pursue. To date, Welsh Ministers have been limited to borrowing either from the national loans fund, which is part of the UK Government, or from commercial banks. The draft order, which is made under section 121(4) of the Wales Act 2014, will extend the means by which Ministers in Wales can borrow, to include bond issuance. It is, of course, a matter for Welsh Ministers to decide which source of borrowing provides the best value for money for Welsh taxpayers at any given time.

I am pleased to note that the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and the Chief Secretary to the Treasury have both approved the draft order. I commend it to the Committee.