Wales in dark on size of budget cuts, Plaid Cymru says

Plaid Cymru has accused the Welsh government of "leaving people in the dark" over its cuts plans.

Welsh ministers have been asked to find savings for the current financial year but Plaid said its unclear how much is going to be saved.

Ministers say there is a £900m gap but on Wednesday a minister said she is not looking to "reprioritise" that figure.

The Welsh government said it was waiting to see if more money would come from the UK government.

Earlier in the summer, First Minister Mark Drakeford asked cabinet members to look for savings for the current financial year, with inflation and pay rises squeezing budgets.

At the time Mr Drakeford criticised the the UK government for not providing extra cash off the back of promises to raise pay.

But Finance Minister Rebecca Evans told Senedd members on Wednesday that there now may be extra funds for Wales due to NHS pay-rises in England.

It had been expected that the UK government would fund its own pay rises for NHS workers in England from existing budgets, meaning there would be no extra cash for the Welsh government to pay for similar pay rises in Wales.

Meanwhile, the finance minister said the grant that provides most of the funding for councils - the Revenue Support Grant - will be "protected".

The Welsh government funds a range of public services including the NHS, schools, social care and councils.

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In response to a topical question from Plaid Cymru's Peredur Owen Griffiths in the Welsh Parliament on Wednesday, Ms Evans said the government had been looking at where spending can be "delayed, deferred, reprioritised and reduced".

She said ministers wanted to avoid spending more than allocated in its budget, which could "create a more difficult situation next year".

Ministers were yet to agree the package, she said, adding: "Just to reassure colleagues, I'm not looking for £900m to be reprioritized across government, we're looking at what else we can do.

"We have to consider assumptions around, for example, NHS pay consequentials," she said, referring to the possibility of extra funds.

She said she was hoping for clarity from the UK government at a meeting next week.

Following the comments, Plaid Cymru said it remained unclear what figure ministers were working to.

Plaid Cymru's Peredur Owen Griffiths said: "We acknowledge the poor hand that the Welsh government has been dealt by this out of touch and perennially incompetent UK government.

"But by keeping everyone in the dark about the gaping hole in the Welsh government budget, Labour is not showing the honest and responsible leadership that the people of Wales rightly expect."

'Indication' of extra funds

At a hearing of the Senedd's Finance Committee, Ms Evans said there has been "an indication" that Welsh government will get consequential funding as a result of the NHS pay award in England and that ministers here are working with that "assumption".

Ms Evans said: "I've met with all colleagues, we've been looking at every budget, really, to see what can be released in order to meet some of those pressures.

"We're still working on that at the moment. We need to take this decision as a cabinet collectively. Everybody needs to be accepting of the choices that we need to make."

However, Ms Evans added that she had "protected" the Revenue Support Grant, which funds local authorities, in order to give councils "certainty".

Emma Watkins, Deputy Director for Budget and Government Business in the Welsh government, said the government's "emphasis" was on "protecting core frontline public services as we go through this exercise… and also continuing to provide support to those households who are most hit by some of the cost of living challenges that they're chasing at the moment."

A Welsh government spokesman said: "We are not keeping people in the dark. We just do not know how much - if any - additional consequential [funding from the UK government] we will get this year.

"The Treasury is not willing, or not able, to tell us and the finance minister will be pressing the chief secretary to the Treasury on this again when they meet next week."

Additional reporting by Cemlyn Davies

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