A FINAL budget for Wales was passed in the Senedd yesterday ahead of Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s Budget being set later today.

Welsh rates of income tax are estimated to raise over £3 billion in the next financial year and the Senedd agreed that Welsh taxpayers will continue to pay the same rates of income tax as people in England and Northern Ireland.

Finance Minister Rebecca Evans complained to the Senedd that the Westminster government Budget would have huge implications for Wales but the Conservative Party did not take the devolved nations into account when arranging its timetable.

“We knew back in 2020-21 that the third year of the spending review period was going to be far from easy to manage, with a short-sighted settlement from the UK government front-loading a diminishing allocation to Wales,” Ms Evans said.

She told the Senedd that usually there are not many changes between the draft and final budget.

But this time there were more changes than usual because in the last two weeks, the Westminster government provided details about the funding consequentials that Wales will receive as a result of decisions it has made to increase spending in devolved areas in England. 

Ms Evans said that as well as the financial transactions capital allocations she had planned to make at the final budget, it means almost £190 million of extra allocations in the final budget. 

The Welsh Conservatives opposed the budget which meant that a vote was held at the end of the Senedd session but was after the Star went to print.

The budget passed with the support of Plaid Cymru and the Liberal Democrats.