 Wel, Bwrd-daw, ddodd i'r meddwl i'ch gweinidol. A wnaeth i ddweud y gweithio gyda'r Gweithio Ffynol Cymru ar 24-25. Ond, rydyn ni ddim yn ddweud eich gweithio ar gyfer y gweithio, ac yn ddwy'n credu i fod y ddweud i gweithio'r hyn o gweithio'r gweithio ar gyfer gweithio'r gweithio. Y gweithio gweithio ar gyfer y ddweud drath gweithio'r gweithio'r wmp inni, Нап Based on the most difficult financial situation since the start of devolution when we set the draft budget Pa impact of persistently high inflation meant that our budget was worth £1.3 billion less than it was at the point at which it was set by the UK government in 2021. In developing our draft budget we were faced with a i'r llwyddoch gwaith iawn i'r fforddol, ac yn cyfansio clyweddochol. Ar hwnnw breathing yn ffrindigknir i gyd yn y fforddol, mae'r llwyddoch hwnnw mae'n mynd i gael'r gwyblog o好있는gan o'r cyfrifasol a'r heddiw, yr wyf, osio'r gennym, ac o'r mantein o'r llwyddoch gyfo ffyrddol o'r gwybrach a'r ffrindig gyrwb am fadaeth ymrwyach. Rhywbeth yma gyda sut yma yn ddweud o'r gwnaeth er mwyn ffordd i bwysig o unedau'r terfysgol gyda'r cyfnod, rydyn ni'n rhoi'r cyflogau ar gyfer teithas, i bobl ddim yn ffordd i'r llyflol a gwneud bod yn fwy o'r ffundod yn y ffondiol ar y ffondiol yn y ffondiol yn y Dweud yn fwy o'r 4% i gyrsio yma, yn ôl lŷ o gwybod yn 1% oedd yn y Llyfrgell. Mae'n gweithio ar y rheiddiadau yn y rhaid i'w ffondiol, mae'n rhaid i'n rhaid i'w ffondiol yn y rhaid, unrhyw ddynghedeg i methu bwrdd gynnwys ar y dyluniaeth. Mae'n rhwng choice oes aelod i'r ddiwyddiadau fel hynny i gweithio'r gennyddu ffordd o Gŵy Erdini, ond hynny'n gwirionedd yn yw gweithio gweithio'r gweithio'r panes ond y ddaeth ddweud y gweithredu ymweld eich gweithio'r gwaith. Wrth gwrs ymgylchu'r llaw ffyrdd yn siart yn fawr i gyfleu chi'r cychwyn pan mae'n gweithio'r cychwyn cyfberthweith yn sefydli'r gyllid gweithiol ac zonaeth. Gall. We do not make many changes between our draft and final budget. Sometimes we make technical changes or we make changes to respond to the issues that we hear is scrutiny. But this time we are making more changes than usual because in the last couple of weeks the UK government has finally given us further detail on the funding consequentials we will receive as a result of the decisions that is made to increase spending in devolved yng Nghwyl Rhaglenn◔ rwyf. Felly byddwn yn y Ffyn allanrediad trwmhaenol iawn fforddlawn i'r fforddlawn i gael rhi'r ffradwar yn ei gael. Felly byddwn yn ffraeg i 19 miliwn ffradwar yn y ffradwar rwi, ac yn ymuno arweud mae'r gwaith o'i bod yn garfodol yma yn eu llai, felly rhaid ei ffraeg i wneud ei ffyrddol i gael rhywun o eu ei ddylawn ar gweithio. Fyny'r fforddlawn i'r ffradwy fforddlawn, roeddwn i ddod y cyfnod dros gyffredigol rwy'n ddweud o'r cyffredin iawn, yn cyfnodol. Felly, mae'r adnoddau bod yn ffordd y bydd hynny yn ffocwsol o'r gweithgaf, rydych chi'n gweithio'r cyffredin iawn, oedd ei gweithio'r gweld yn y draff. Felly, mae'r ddweud o'r ffodol yn ffodol yn ffodol. Mae'n 14.4 miliwn yr unrhyw o'r rhaid o'r gofyrdd ymlaen o'i wneud i'r gweithgaf yn ysgrifennu i'r hollol, a gwneudio gwaith eich rwyfael i ddweud cynnyddio cwlwyddoedd y ddisgu ymwyaf ar gynig arweithio cyllid backup a gweithio'r cyfrwyng a bledau cyfrwyng. Y ddim yn bwysig i gyfrwyng localygiad yn oed yn festu cyd-dweithiau felly y gondond y 2.3% yn ddych chi'n ddweud yn ei tynnu. Yn hynny, 10 miliwn pwnnw rydych yn ailfynol ar gyfer hynny o ddweud ac arbennig o samferau. Mi gwybod yn edrych yn rhoi i dweud gan hynny ysgrifennu'r ceisol. Tarter closes its blast furnaces at Patalbet. There is £40 million of new capital funding to support the NHS and the final budget confirms the £30 million package for the Hollyhead Breakwater and a new £20 million fund to help support small and medium-sized businesses future-proof their business. We're also making some additional allocations to our shared cooperation agreement priorities including constitutional reform work and housing projects. I want to thank Sean Gwentleon, the lead designated member for the cooperation agreement for the constructive work and relationship that we've had during this difficult budget round. This year, as in previous years, we have seen significant changes to our budget very late in the financial year. This makes it difficult for us to plan properly with knock-on consequences for other public sector organisations. We also face rigid limits on our ability to carry forward or draw down funds from our reserves and this hampers our ability to plan ahead and respond to changing circumstances and there is something fundamentally wrong with the UK's funded arrangements which allow this to happen. I've repeatedly called for increased budget flexibilities to enable us to manage our funding more effectively in line with Wales's needs. This includes indexing our borrowing and overall reserve limits to inflation and removing the limits on the amount that we can draw down from our reserves in any given year. These flexibilities are available to Scotland and recent increases to the agreed Northern Ireland annual capital borrowing limit are far more generous than our own. These flexibilities are about ensuring that we have the tools and the autonomy to use the money that we have in the best possible way in line with the needs and the priorities of the people that we serve. I'll explain in more detail why we need these flexibilities in a debate in the centre this afternoon and I am very pleased that we've been able to jointly table a motion with all political parties represented in the centre calling on the UK government to provide us with increased fiscal flexibilities. This isn't a political issue it's a practical one and we're putting our differences aside to make that pragmatic case jointly to the UK government. So I'll finish there and thank you very much for your time this morning and I'm very happy of course to take questions. So first of all we will go to Megan Boot. Megan's joining us on Zoom. Thank you. Do you think this does enough to help councils protect the services that people rely upon? I'm very grateful for that question and as we set about establishing our draft budget that work was taking place over the summer of last year we set some core principles which would really inform all of the decisions which we took and one of those was absolutely about protecting our core frontline public services both the NHS and local government. At the spending review we promised local government a 3.1% uplift next year we were able to deliver that and that's been very hard and it has meant difficult decisions across the rest of government so that we can provide that funding to local government and to the NHS. But that said we know local government is still going to be facing some really really tough choices this year as they go about setting their budgets which is why it's so important that they consult locally that they have those conversations about how they set council tax for example. We're doing the best that we can to put local government on strong footing and our budget this year of course builds on what have been very good settlements over the last couple of years it was more than 9% the two years ago more than 7% in this financial year so both of those have been baseline so local government in Wales is in a much stronger position than a counterparts across the border in England but we absolutely recognise nonetheless there will be still many tough choices that they're facing. I don't know Megan if you had another question or if we'll move. Thank you. Okay thank you Megan we're going to move now to Dan Davis BBC Wales he's joining us from Zoom as well. Thanks minister can I just ask about the money that you're putting back into training schemes react and so on you just to be clear there's still big cuts to that budget even with the money you're putting back in and you say that that is to support the steel sector but if the money is just going into the to react or any other general scheme there is no guarantee is there that that money will be available to steel workers or you know if it comes to it steel workers who lose their jobs? What we do want to guarantee is that the Welsh Government will always do its absolute level best to protect steel workers and you can see that we have a long long strong track record of doing that over many years now you're right that the funding is being provided to boost the apprenticeships programme in terms of looking at those cuts that we had intended to make and then also looking at the employability support as well and those programmes will be available for people across Wales who face losing their jobs or who are looking for apprenticeship opportunities perhaps to get into employment for the first time or to change change their employment so those things will be available to people everywhere what the economy minister has said is that he would be prepared to look again at his budgets should the worst come to the worst in Tata and we need to you know take some action there he would look again at his budgets to see what needed to be boosted so I think that what we've done today is recognise as far as we can the pressures that those budget lines are facing but also to reiterate really our strong commitment to workers at Tata. Okay thanks I mean the obvious follow-up is that you know why don't you just contribute to the UK government's 100 million pound fund but anyway my second question is going to be on the constitution the McAllister and Williams report final report has been published why are you still budgeting a million pounds for constitution reform next year? So just to come back on the point that you made about Tata I do have to emphasise that over many years Welsh government has been investing in Tata and particularly so in terms of the skills agenda in the steel sector but then also in terms of decarbonisation as well so you know we have again a long track record of investing in in our steel sector here in Wales and that will continue through the apprenticeship support and so on. In terms of the constitutional work you're right that the constitutional commission has reported I found the recommendations particularly on the fiscal flexibility side of things to be particularly welcome they recognise I suppose and repeat the kind of calls that the IFS the WLGA and others have been making in that space as well. We've worked with Plaid Cymru and the designated member to explore how we might be able to make some additional allocations in the course of this budget and this is one of those shared areas of interest and shared areas of priority so we'll be publishing more detail really on what that one million pounds will be delivering in the future and we're also looking to the potential work around a justice observatory as well to continue to make the calls for further devolution in that space so these are areas of shared interest with Plaid Cymru which is why we thought it's right that we resource those through this final budget. Okay we will move now to Hannah Thomas from Global. Thank you minister in your opening statement you've outlined cuts blamed austerity and a rise in inflation and despite the extra moneys from the UK government it's still quite a gloomy forecast. The people of Britain have been told before by the UK government to hold their NIV but can you today give the people of Wales a ray of hope when will this be over or when can people start to see the light at the end of the tunnel when will things actually start to improve. That is a really good question and unfortunately you know if you look to what the experts are telling us about the outlook for public finances in future years the future does look quite gloomy over the next couple of years and a lot of that can be traced back of course to the mini budget for example and the disaster that that has been for the economy here in Britain so I think that things are going to be difficult but I think that you know the ray of hope really is the way we go about making those decisions so you know our Labour government here in Wales is obviously as you can see in the budget prioritising public services we've listened to people the things that they tell us matter to them the most the NHS those core front-line services that the councils deliver we protected funding going to schools for example the basic payment scheme for farmers to support our rural communities all of those things have been absolutely at the heart of our budget so I suppose if anything the ray of hope is the way we go about building those budgets on those set of important principles but I don't want to suggest that the outlook is going to look rosy in terms of public finances in the next few years because that's just not what the experts are telling us. You mentioned in your answer there about sort of farming helping farming communities but in relation to these farming subsidies we've seen you know obviously many protests go slow protests so there's a lot of discontent isn't it now time to stop this proposal on the 20% of planting trees and for wildlife so we can bring this to a conclusion is there a different way to bring sustainability into farming? Thank you for what is a really really important question and I think that the first thing to do is obviously to recognise the concerns that the farming community have been raising with us and say you know we've absolutely heard what they've been saying the most important thing that people can do right now today is to have their say in the consultation so those decisions haven't yet been made we are absolutely listening to what the farming community is telling us so everybody who's got an interest from an environmental perspective from a farming perspective and those two things are not different things I think that it's important to recognise that as well so they should have their say. I held the farming portfolio for a couple of years back from 2014 to 16 so it was a long time ago now but I spent an awful lot of time on farms and every time I would speak to farmers they would tell me about how they really wanted to make sure that their farm was in good shape to hand on to the next generation so I think it's important to recognise as well the care that farmers have for the environment and for their farms so I think those discussions just need to keep going I know there was a discussion between the FM and the Rural Affairs Minister with the farming community in Welshpool yesterday I understand that was a very open and productive and honest discussion so please have your say in the consultation as we move forward and I think there's another at least a week left for people to have their say on that. So we'll move next to Sean Barry and he's also joining us online by Zoom from Wales Online. Hi Mr, thank you. At the time of the draft budget you were putting out the case for capital, £100 million to be converted into revenue in negotiations with the Treasury, so just an update on the outcome of that process. On also your borrowing powers you have the ability to borrow I think a billion over five years of capital but since the Wales Act I would say the Welsh Government's record on use of its borrowing powers to the maximum is parity at best whereas the Scots have maximised their borrowing powers so just an overview really on where you are in terms of using your borrowing powers in the current financial year and then for the financial year 24-25. I get really grateful for that question on borrowing I think it's important to set out that the Welsh Government every single year since we've had the ability to borrow has planned in its budget in its published budget to borrow to the maximum but what's happened at the end of financial years very often in this financial year indeed is that very very late in the year that's supplementary estimates which are normally in February the UK Government provides an additional boost so it can be £100 million of additional capital. Equally you can see you know the other years we've had £100 million reduced from our budget in capital at the end of the year so the unpredictability is a real problem for us there so in those years where we've planned to borrow and then we get a big slug of capital at the end of the financial year you appreciate you can't spend capital very quickly so that money then means that we don't have to borrow in those years it all speaks to the unpredictability of it all and why it's so good that we've got this cross party motion in the chamber this afternoon so I would you know push back on that that suggestion our record is patchy we've always plans to borrow to the maximum what we have been doing in the last couple of financial years actually is to over-program our capital so we've over-programmed by 100 million pounds to try and ensure that we do use that borrowing and we have been able to use that borrowing as a result of that but again you know these they're not the kind of ideal flexibilities that we need to manage our budget on the capital to revenue switch we were making the case to manage our budget in this financial year when we had that 900 million pounds pressure we made the case to the UK government that we should be able to switch up to 200 million pounds from capital to revenue that would have helped us manage the budget so if people aren't familiar with all of this capital is the money that you use for infrastructure revenue is what you pay day-to-day bills with their pay bills and so on so UK government said that they would give us only what the UK government provides to UK government Whitehall department so I mentioned supplementary estimates that's the point at which you get your final budget for the year so it's only at that very late point that we get our share of what's been agreed with UK government department the UK government will not agree a switch with us but it will agree it with other departments and we only get what falls out of the bonnet formula as a result of that so again that's something which isn't isn't suitable for our needs so that's why we've had this opportunity to talk across government and across parties we've tabled alongside the the Welsh Conservatives, Plaid Cymru and Liberal Democrats a motion in the centre today putting politics aside and calling on the UK government to improve our flexibilities to allow us to manage the budget better so we don't have these issues so much around borrowing that we do have the ability to have some kind of system that allows us to have a capital to revenue switch which Whitehall departments are allowed but but we aren't so I'm really glad that we do have that cross party support today is really important. Okay thank you can we just ask around priority spending going forward in in 25 26 regardless of the political party Westminster I think the outlook will be challenging in front of all governments on on the spending capacity so has any thought been given now minister to those funding projects you currently finance being scrapped in its entirety I mean elements of business support it might be politically difficult but you know free bus passes for the elderly so my questions are you looking at expenditure lines which which might be taken out of your budget entirely so at the moment so you mentioned 25 26 we don't have a budget for that year what we are going to do is engage early as we always do with the UK government on its next comprehensive spending review period we'll start that engagement in April of this year to try and make sure that we get our fair share particularly in terms of rail funding for example those ongoing discussions around HS2 and so on so at the moment we've tried to look it's in this budget that we've tabled for for the next financial year look at those areas where it's a responsibility of the UK government but we've tried to step in in the past so we have reduced our funding for PCSOs for example that was a tough decision we all recognize the value that they bring to our communities but at the end of the day that's the UK government's responsibility and we have looked at other ways in which we can perhaps remodel our forecasts for a particular various things such as the childcare offer and that's been able to release some funding as well so we've tried really to to protect as much as we possibly can whilst having that focus on public services it's you know experienced austerity for so long it's not as if we have a number of projects that we can just look to and make cuts to nothing that we do it doesn't matter to somebody here in Wales so we've tried to really focus on those public services as far as possible but there have been some tough choices certainly okay we'll move now to Jess Payne by our media and she's here with us in the room. Yes we spoke to a toy shop yesterday in Cardiff and they said that they were at a tipping point and the change in business rates might prove devastating have you got any words of reassurance for them? So just for background for anybody who's not familiar with this we've been providing temporary rate relief support for people who were for businesses in the retail hospitality and leisure sector since the pandemic we've provided over a billion pounds of support but that support was always intended to be temporary it's not something that business was been planning on at all for the next financial year because it was assumed it would come to an end in any case so we've as I said faced some really really difficult choices with the budget and our priority has been protecting public services the NHS in Wales will have a 4% uplift compared to less than 1% across the border in England but I think the situation you've described gives an example of one of the tough choices that we've had to make nonetheless we will be providing 40% rates relief to those businesses in that sector but let's remember around half of businesses in Wales pay no rates whatsoever in any case only around one in five will actually pay their full entitlement because we do have a really generous system of support for businesses it's worth in the next financial year around a third of a billion pounds that's an awful lot of rates relief support that we're providing so you know I do understand that this decision not to be able to provide a full 75% will be disappointing to businesses but it is one of the tough choices that we've made in terms of just making sure that the NHS has what it needs to keep going yeah thank you um you've also described this budget as stark dire and a lot of that blame has been put onto the UK government we are expecting a general election coming up and what are you hoping to hear from the major parties to help okay just to clarify the circumstances of dire the budgets not not dire um but um so things that we would really want to see from a UK government would be practical things we're realistic really about the outlook for public finances over the next few years having listened to what the experts have been telling us so one thing that we really want to see from a UK government of any colour would be better physical flexibilities for the Welsh government so just to think ahead to the debate that we've got in the chamber this afternoon all parties are agreeing that Wales needs to be able to access its reserve the full reserve in any financial year so um we're able to carry a reserve which is basically your bank account of just 350 million pounds that's absolutely tiny in the context of a 23 billion pound budget so we need to be able to access all of that if we need to in any financial year there are quite rigid rules at the moment as to how much you're able to draw down and actually that reserve is worth 23% less than it was at the time it was set so we need to have a system whereby the reserve increases in line with inflation in order to help us manage our budget in that space and I've talked a little bit about borrowing powers so we're keen to have the overall limits on borrowing increased but then our annual limits increased so at the moment we're only allowed to borrow 150 million pounds so those are some of the practical things I think the UK government could do of any colour they could do it overnight they've done it uh they've done it for Scotland they've improved the situation for Northern Ireland I think that it is quite stark now that Wales has been ignored on those important fronts which is why that cross party support is so important okay and finally we're going to David Nicholson morning star and he's on zoom Morning Minister, the PCS union are holding a demonstration and very outside the senate today co-testing the custom museums and galleries of Wales and the depth of those parts and they will be starting levels I assume to our collections of Wales is there anything any message of hope? We have made some really tough choices in the budget and some of those do impact on our cultural arms length bodies the final budget does include an additional 1.4 million for Cadw and the Royal Commission so now that brings it up to parity in terms of reductions across the other cultural arms length bodies of 10.5% but absolutely we appreciate that that is one of the tough choices that we've made in the budget and there are very few areas that we've been able to offer protection to even with a 3.1% uplift to the RSG which has recently increased to 3.3% as a result of some of the decisions that I've been announcing today that's still going to make tough choices for local government there's no part of the public sector which isn't going to be affected unfortunately we have tried to protect jobs as far as possible but I don't want to suggest that that we're going to be able to solve all of the tough choices because our budget's worth so much less than it was at the time it was set okay and the Wales TUC has made a suggestion to the Welsh Government at one way in the medium to long term that money can be saved for the Welsh Government's budget is to bring services back in-house so the profit doesn't leak out of the system from the public sector you said at the time you thought it was a a good idea what action is being taken by Welsh Government to in-source those services that you can so one of the things that we have been doing is looking at providing a toolkit and a guide for organisations in terms of bringing things back in-house and particularly this would be in local government so we've been working with Compass as it is now in order to deliver that toolkit so that organisations can understand the things that they need to be considering and the benefits of bringing things in-house so of course we need to look at that ourselves as Welsh Government to and I know that that's something that the deputy minister who's responsible for this particular area will be taking a keen interest in. Okay so I think that brings us to the end of the press conference today so thank you very much for joining us.