Brexit: Welsh Government £85m for social housing and roads

£50m has been found for social housing programmes

The Welsh Government has made £85m available to be spent on social housing and roads to "boost" resilience in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

The cash will also be made available to councils and economic sectors, such as the automotive industry.

Finance Minister Rebecca Evans said she would "consider making" a further funding announcement closer to the UK's departure from the EU.

The funding pot is part of changes to minister's £18bn 2019-20 budget.

It is the first of two supplementary budgets for the current financial year.

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The £85m package, made available by reallocating Welsh Government reserves, includes:

• £50m for local government social housing programmes, including the delivery of up to 650 homes;

• £5m for maintenance of the road network;

• £10m for the 'Economy Futures Fund', which could include support for the automotive, manufacturing, life sciences, advanced battery manufacturing and the paper manufacturing sectors;

• £20m for councils

Speaking ahead of a debate on the supplementary budget in the Senedd, Ms Evans said: "It really is our duty as a responsible government to be preparing for all potential outcomes and part of that is the announcement that I've made today which does seek to give confidence to the construction industry in particular but also then to the wider supply chains which rely on it."

Rebecca Evans said the Welsh Government did not know its revenue budget for 2020-21

Ms Evans said the Welsh Government was "in an absolutely incredible situation" of not knowing about its revenue budget for the next financial year from the UK government's Treasury.

The minister said: "The Comprehensive Spending Review promised by the UK government hasn't materialised and the chief secretary to the Treasury said that she didn't expect it to be forthcoming this side of the summer recess, which really does suggest to me that we will potentially looking at a roll-over revenue budget for next year, which would be deeply disappointing.

"There's absolutely no sign that the UK government's promise that austerity is over is actually anything they're prepared to demonstrate in financial terms," she added.

With the increasing possibility of the UK leaving the EU without a deal on 31 October, Ms Evans said the Welsh Government is sensing a "certain amount of Brexit fatigue" amongst Wales' business community.

The Labour AM said: "One thing that we have some real concern about is the fact that many businesses have been marched up the hill and then marched down again and they, in many cases, made some major changes to their businesses, so stockpiling components and so on.

"But then they didn't need to because Brexit didn't happen.

"There's a reluctance on the part of some businesses to go to that effort again based on the fact that a no-deal Brexit might not happen," she added.