By Vivienne Russell | 30 September 2014
The Labour Welsh Government has struck a two-year budget deal with the Liberal Democrats that will see extra funds go to schools, the NHS and social services.
Its draft Budget for 2015/16 hailed as ‘responsible, pioneering and sustainable’, provides the NHS with an additional £225m next year and an additional £10m for councils to manage social service pressure.
‘We are continuing to fight for the interests of local government in Wales. We recognise that the settlement is still challenging but we are announcing an additional £10m in 2015/16 in recognition of the pressures faced by social services,’ said Welsh finance minister Jane Hutt.
‘This additional investment, couples with the protection for schools budgets, means that the settlement will be better on average than local authorities were expecting.’
Central to the Labour-LibDem agreement, is an extra £44m in 2015/16 for the Pupil Deprivation Grant. This will rise to £51.2m in 2016/17.
‘This builds on the existing programme which is an important response to the commitment to break the link between poverty and educational attainment,’ the parties said in a joint statement.
‘The additional investment will uplift the current PDG from £918 per pupil to £1050 in 2015/16, increasing to £1150 in 2016/17.’
The PDG is also being extended to under-fives to ensure that disadvantaged children have access to high-quality early-years education.
Additional capital funding allocations, totalling £90m, are also proposed. They included £37m for housing, £40m for transport infrastructure and £10m for broadband.
‘The package of investment will support the delivery of schemes with a total value in excess of £1bn and support the creation or retention of around 1,400 jobs,’ Hutt said.
Of the £90m in capital funding, £52m is in traditional capital and £38m in financial transactions funding.
The deal also included a commitment not to start work on the M4 relief road until after the next round of Assembly elections. While the Welsh Government has decided to use some of its new borrowing powers to fund the construction of the relief road around Newport, objections to the scheme have been tabled.
According to the joint statement: ‘[The Welsh Government] have also agreed with the Welsh Liberal Democrats to commission a detailed Environmental Impact Study on the Welsh Government preferred route before any detailed design work begins.
‘The Welsh Government maintains that they are open to reviewing their position dependent on the outcome of the study and any public inquiry. Both will be considered in detail before deciding how to proceed.’
