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Guto Ifan

Guto Ifan

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Frozen 2: Tax Freezes, the 2-Child Limit (and what the 2025 Autumn Budget means for Wales)

Frozen 2: Tax Freezes, the 2-Child Limit (and what the 2025 Autumn Budget means for Wales)

Posted on 27 November 2025 by Guto Ifan

By Guto Ifan, Ed Gareth Poole and Owain Cynfab   On Wednesday, Chancellor Rachel Reeves delivered her second budget, after months of speculation, briefings and uncertainty. The much-trailed worsening of […]

‘Neutral’ or ‘Neutered’? Analysing the 2026-27 Welsh Government Outline Draft Budget

‘Neutral’ or ‘Neutered’? Analysing the 2026-27 Welsh Government Outline Draft Budget

Posted on 15 October 2025 by Guto Ifan

Guto Ifan, Ed Gareth Poole and Owain Cynfab   On Tuesday 14 October, Finance Secretary Mark Drakeford MS unveiled an outline of the Welsh Government’s tax and spending plans for […]

We Need to Talk About Council Tax: The Regressive Welsh Way of Raising Taxes

Posted on 4 September 2025 by Guto Ifan

By Guto Ifan, Ed Gareth Poole and Owain Cynfab Back in April, households across Wales started paying their council tax bills for 2025-26. The average 7.3% increase in these bills […]

Spending Review 2025 – the implications for Wales

Spending Review 2025 – the implications for Wales

Posted on 12 June 2025 by Guto Ifan

By Guto Ifan, Owain Cynfab and Ed Gareth Poole  On 11 June, Chancellor Rachel Reeves outlined the UK government’s detailed spending plans. While the announcement of rail funding dominated the […]

Wales Fiscal Analysis: immediate response to rail funding announcement for Wales

Wales Fiscal Analysis: immediate response to rail funding announcement for Wales

Posted on 11 June 2025 by Guto Ifan

In the briefings prior to today’s Spending Review, the main headline for Wales in the Spending Review would be that Welsh railways would benefit from £445 million, with a briefing […]

Spring Statement 2025 – the implications for Wales

Spring Statement 2025 – the implications for Wales

Posted on 27 March 2025 by Guto Ifan

By Guto Ifan, Owain Roberts and Ed Gareth Poole With dark economic clouds gathering, the Chancellor decided to cut spending to meet her ‘iron-clad’ fiscal rules. This blog looks at […]

Making sense of the Welsh Government’s Draft Budget for 2025-26

Making sense of the Welsh Government’s Draft Budget for 2025-26

Posted on 11 December 2024 by Guto Ifan

Following Rachel Reeves’ decisions on taxation, spending and borrowing, this was always going to be a “big” budget. The Welsh Government had significantly more funding to allocate than was expected […]

Autumn Reeves: The 2024 Labour budget and its implications for Wales

Autumn Reeves: The 2024 Labour budget and its implications for Wales

Posted on 31 October 2024 by Guto Ifan

Ed Gareth Poole and Guto Ifan, Wales Fiscal Analysis   Following an election in which both main parties largely ignored the reality facing the UK’s public finances, yesterday’s budget provided […]

Stark choices await the Welsh Budget – whichever party wins the UK General Election

Stark choices await the Welsh Budget – whichever party wins the UK General Election

Posted on 26 June 2024 by Guto Ifan

Wales Fiscal Analysis briefing on the implications of the 2024 General Election manifestos for the Welsh Government budget As the General Election campaign reaches its final stages, the major UK […]

Health by a thousand cuts? An initial analysis of the Welsh Government Draft Budget

Health by a thousand cuts? An initial analysis of the Welsh Government Draft Budget

Posted on 20 December 2023 by Guto Ifan

On 19 October, the Welsh Government published its Draft Budget for 2024-25. It had additional funding to allocate - but the budget had been significantly eroded by higher-than-expected inflation, with […]