As the Scottish Government prepares for the devolution of eleven welfare benefits to Holyrood, Cian Sion and Guto Ifan from the Wales Fiscal Analysis team explore the fiscal implications of devolving similar powers to Wales. Read more
Amidst the political drama of crucial Brexit votes this week, the Chancellor of the Exchequer delivered his Spring Statement on the UK’s economy and public finances. This blog post looks at what the Spring Statement and forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) can tell us about future Welsh budgets and Welsh public services. Read more
At last year’s Autumn Budget, the UK Chancellor, Philip Hammond, asserted with confidence that “austerity is finally coming to an end”. His claim is unlikely to resonate within the halls of local government in Wales. Despite nearly a decade of sustained budget cuts, the outlook for local government finance suggests that tough choices and trade-offs are here to stay. Read more
As local authorities across Wales prepare to publish their budgets for 2019-20, expect to see a significant rise in Council Tax, with councils increasingly relying on locally-sourced revenue to partially offset cuts to their funding and to meet increasing demand pressures. 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
