Budget Resolutions

Rob Roberts Excerpts

Monday 1st November 2021 Commons Chamber

[Rob Roberts (Delyn) (Ind)]

The Budget and the contents within it for Wales bring together an ambitious programme of renewal that will generate jobs and level up local communities. Going forward, Wales will see a record £18 billion a year, the largest annual funding settlement since devolution began, helping to level up across the whole United Kingdom. Wales will also benefit from UK-wide support for people, businesses and green jobs, and investment to level up all the opportunities before them. There will also be targeted UK funding to support local infrastructure improvements and investment in communities in the form of the £121 million outlined in the allocation of the levelling up fund, with further rounds to follow. I remain hopeful that the Labour-run Flintshire County Council, the local authority area in which Delyn sits, will have prepared a bid for the next round of funding, having decided not to bother with applying for constituency-level funding in this round.

Infrastructure improvements will hopefully include a new train station at Greenfield. That was a key pledge during my election campaign in order to level up the Holywell area of Delyn and would bring constituents there closer to the job opportunities that exist in the wider north Wales and north-west of England economic region. The Chancellor set out a plan to deliver the priorities of the British people by investing in stronger public services, levelling up opportunity, driving business growth and helping working families with the cost of living and owning their own homes.

In calendar year 2019, the average UK constituency built 246 new properties; in Delyn, the figure was 29% lower. In 2020, the average constituency built 189 new properties; in Delyn, the figure was 34% lower. So far in 2021, the average constituency has built 180 new homes; in Delyn, just 74 have been built, which is almost 60% less than the average. The Welsh Government Minister told me that housing is her top priority. With figures demonstrating that it is only getting worse year on year, I hate to think what the details look like for things that are not her top priority. Hopefully, with the Welsh Government having significant new funding available, they will up their game and be as ambitious as the UK Government.

As part of the spending plans, there is on average a 2.6% rise in the Welsh Government’s budget each year. With the Welsh Government set to receive about £120 a head for every £100 of per-person equivalent UK Government spending in England, the old Labour argument that “Westminster does not send us enough money”, which was questionable before, is downright ludicrous now. That is another of Labour’s excuses for poor Government in Wales out the window.

I echo the Chancellor’s sentiments and it is worth quoting them:

“we have a choice: do we want to live in a country where the response to every question is ‘What are the Government going to do about it?’, where every time prices rise, every time a company gets in trouble, every time some new challenge emerges, the answer is always that the taxpayer must pay? Or do we choose to recognise that Government has limits?”—[Official Report, 27 October 2021; Vol. 702, c. 286.]

I could not have been happier to hear that from him.

Given not only the economic challenges of the past 18 months but the ongoing societal challenges, perhaps it is time to revisit the traditional three Rs of education. Of course, we still need reading, writing and arithmetic, but I venture that to build back better from the pandemic both financially and in terms of community coherence, we need a focus on a new set of three Rs: respect, responsibility and resilience. The Budget has the potential to help the people of Delyn and north Wales enormously, and it will undoubtedly help the United Kingdom to build back better as a strong Union of equals.