Budget 2020: Extra £360m for Welsh Government promised

Rishi Sunak presented his first budget

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has promised the Welsh Government an extra £360m a year in a Budget dominated by coronavirus.

The UK government said the extra cash means new funding for Wales will rise to £1bn in the 2020-21 financial year.

Welsh Secretary Simon Hart said support was being provided to help deal with "exceptional circumstances".

But Welsh Finance Minister Rebecca Evans said the money "barely takes us back to where we were 10 years ago".

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The chancellor pledged £12bn to tackle coronavirus in the first budget of Boris Johnson's government.

It included extending sick pay for UK workers and suspending business rates for many shops and cafes in England.

Business rates are devolved and there are calls for Welsh ministers to match the changes.

Extra spending on services in England usually results in a knock-on increase in budgets in Wales, through a mechanism known as the Barnett formula.

'Deliver prosperity'

Mr Hart said: "This Budget shows the UK government is keeping its promises to level up the nations and region of the UK and deliver prosperity for Wales."

He added: "We are supporting Welsh Government in exceptional circumstances - to help tackle coronavirus and flooding."

The announcement is in addition to a previous pledge to boost the Welsh budget for 2020-21.

A UK government source said the £360m was on top of the £600m extra promised at the spending review last September.

Overall the Welsh Government will receive £12.8bn in 2020/21 for day-to-day spending, and £2.4bn for infrastructure.

The Welsh Government said the £360m did not take into account a £100m cut the UK government made to the Welsh budget for infrastructure spending at the end of the financial year.

The Budget was largely overshadowed by the coronavirus

The budget promises to double the amount spent on flood defences in England, to £5.2bn.

Documents did not spell out any specific cash for flooding in Wales, although the Treasury said it will provide an "estimated £300m" in "long-term Welsh Government funding to spend on flood prevention".

Mr Hart said there is a reserve fund into which the Welsh government can dip into for further cash - "so as soon as the Welsh government can come up with a number on the flood damage, come to me or the chancellor and we'll look at that and take it seriously".

Other Wales announcements included £12m in South Wales, and £4m in Pembrokeshire, for full fibre broadband.

Plaid Cymru criticised the funding settlement.

Leader Adam Price said: "The slash and cut Tories still can't bring themselves to do the right thing - funding for our devolved government is still going to be lower than it was ten years ago."

Rebecca Evans said she was pleased with some of parts of the budget

Rebecca Evans, Welsh finance minister, said there were some elements of the budget that she was pleased to see.

"We have seen some measures there that will be really important in supporting businesses," she said.

But she added: "Overall our budget is now only barely where it was 10 years ago. I don't think we've seen the end of austerity yet."

Asked if her government would match the UK's business rates announcement, she said the UK government "has now caught up with us, in the sense that Wales has already been in the position where half of businesses pay no business rates at all".

"When we are able to come to a fuller understanding clearly we will be considering what our response might be."

'Cash injection'

Speaking to BBC Wales, Welsh Secretary Simon Hart said the budget offered the "biggest cash injection for Wales for ten years".

He added it would "unacceptable" if the Welsh Government didn't follow the UK government's lead on business rates.

Referring to business rate cuts announced for England, Paul Davies, the leader of the Welsh Conservatives in the assembly, said: "Because of the Welsh Labour administration in Wales, our friends on the other side of the Severn Crossings are going to benefit in ways we will not."