This Labour budget was 14 years in the making and was supposed to reset Britain on a course for growth. For Wales, at least it provided a boost, but it’s nowhere near enough.
Sure, Labour’s junior partners in Cardiff Bay can boast that they were able so secure an extra £1.7 billion in funding for the coffers of Wales. That’s certainly welcome - it’s just that given the poor state of this country’s health and public services, its broken public transport and its broke Local Authorities, that £1.7 billion is like a spit into a bucket. Much more is needed.
Take health for starters.
All of the health boards in Wales are staring multi-million pound deficits in the face, shortfalls that will have to be covered off by officials. Already, in our hospitals, we are seeing a steep decline in the frontline services being provided to patients. The children’s ward in Aberystwyth is closing temporarily because there’s a nursing shortage.
Withybush hospital in Haverfordwest has wards shut and ceiling held up with emergency supports because of crumbling concrete.
Tywyn hospital is being downgraded. So too Llanidloes.
Together, it means patients in west Wales are travelling further and waiting longer for basic services. The fiscal plan delivered by Rachel Reeves on 30 October does little if anything to change that reality.
How far will that £1.7 billion go when it comes to allowing our over-stretched county councils to deliver basic services such as social and elderly care, education or simply keeping the lights on in our local facilities?
Farmers have a right to be peeved when it comes to the challenges they face, particularly in providing for long-term food security and making sure holdings are passed from generation to generation. The inheritance tax changes are a negative provision outlined by the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
If there is a plus, it is that Ms Reeves did not increase fuel tax. We are a region where buses are like hen’s teeth, our roads are pitiful and our trains are focused only on service communities along the M4, the A55 and the borders. We need to be able to drive.