On 25 November, the UK Government’s Spending Review will conclude. Spending decisions are likely to have wide-ranging fiscal and political implicaitons for Wales. This blog post sets out what to look out for. The initially planned multi-year exercise has been scrapped in favour of a one-year Spending Review, which will set departmental resource and capital Read more
As usual, the UK Chancellor’s “mini budget” on 8 July was followed by claims, counterclaims, and confusion over the amount of additional funding for the Welsh budget. The UK government claimed, “the Summer Economic Update confirms an additional £500 million of Covid-19 funding for the Welsh Government through the Barnett formula.” Later, the Welsh Government Read more
Welsh Government Supplementary Budgets do not usually garner much attention. Given the momentous events since the Welsh Government published its Final Budget allocations in March, tomorrow’s supplementary budget will be different. It may perhaps be the most significant budget ‘event’ in the history of devolution. The scale of additional funding to be allocated in this Read more
Last year saw the fastest growth in public spending for Wales since 2009-10. However, total spending is still well below 2009-10 levels, particularly on areas outside of health and social protection. In this post, Guto Ifan and Cian Sion from Wales Fiscal Analysis analyse the latest release of data on total public spending for Wales. Read more
As he delivered the Outline Draft Budget for 2019-20, the Cabinet Secretary for Finance Mark Drakeford described this budget round as the “toughest yet”. This was the eighth Welsh Government budget since the start of UK austerity measures, which has left the overall Welsh budget 5% lower in real terms since 2010-11. It is also Read more
From next April, the income tax paid by Welsh taxpayers will be partially devolved to the Welsh Government. UK government income tax rates paid in Wales will fall by 10p in the pound (e.g. from 20p to 10p at the basic rate). In an historic landmark for devolution this autumn, the Welsh Government will introduce Read more
George Osborne’s Chancellorship was famously littered with headline-grabbing tax reforms, tax-hikes and give-aways. In style and politics, the ex-Chancellor may have very little in common with the Welsh Government’s Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government, Mark Drakeford, but he would have been proud of one particular announcement in the latter’s budget speech last week. Read more
This article was written by Guto Ifan. Guto joined the Wales Governance Centre at Cardiff University as a research assistant on the Government Expenditure and Revenue Wales (GERW) project, analysing public finances in Wales. The 6-page-long list of financial concessions gained by the DUP has dominated the reaction to their deal with the Conservatives. For Read more
This article was written by Guto Ifan. Guto joined the Wales Governance Centre at Cardiff University as a research assistant on the Government Expenditure and Revenue Wales (GERW) project, analysing public finances in Wales. Given the shattering, generation-shaping magnitude of the great recession, it’s not surprising that interest (and anger) about inequality has returned with Read more
This article was written by Guto Ifan. Guto joined the Wales Governance Centre at Cardiff University as a research assistant on the Government Expenditure and Revenue Wales (GERW) project, estimating and analysing Wales’ fiscal position. The Autumn Statement will have left many onlookers in Wales feeling slightly underwhelmed. A year ago, the then-Chancellor George Osborne Read more
