TRADE UNIONS blamed budget cuts in Scotland and Wales today on Tory austerity as the devolved governments in Edinburgh and Cardiff set revised spending plans for the year ahead.

In Wales, Finance Minister Rebecca Evans said that Welsh ministers had faced the “most stark and painful budget choices for Wales in the devolution era.”

The Scottish government’s Finance Secretary Shona Robison had warned of public-sector job losses in the run-up to the budget.

She told the chamber that the budget was being set in “turbulent circumstances” at home and abroad with Brexit, the war in Ukraine and the UK government’s autumn statement as the source of the £1.5 billion spending gap faced.

Ms Robison confirmed the council tax freeze announced at the party’s conference, giving £140 million to local authorities, the equivalent of a 5 per cent council tax rise.

The Local Government Information Unit’s Jonathan Carr-West said: “The funding settlement is not enough for councils to provide the services that millions of people across Scotland rely on.”

The Welsh government has put in an extra £450m for the NHS and the core local government settlement will increase by 3.1 per cent.

As a result of inflation, Ms Evans claimed that Wales’s overall budget is worth £1.3 billion less in real terms than when it was set in 2021.

“Our funding settlement, which comes largely from the UK government, is not enough to reflect the extreme pressures Wales faces,” she said.

Losers are the rural affairs budget — cut by 8.97 per cent — climate change, with a 3.19 per cent reduction, and social justice. Non-devolved expenditure is not being protected, so there will be cuts to Welsh government financing of police community support officers.

Pubs, shops and restaurants will also shoulder some of the burden as business rate relief will be reduced next April from 75 per cent to 40 per cent.

In an ominous note, Ms Evans warned that the Welsh government would also consider increasing charges for services such as NHS dental care, university tuition fees and domiciliary care.

Plaid Cymru said the draft budget is unsustainable and will have a “serious long-term impact” on Wales.

Nationalist leader Rhun ap Iorwerth said: “There’s no doubt that the context is a very tough one, but Wales faces a double-whammy.

“The funding deal we get from the UK government is unfair and inadequate. But serious questions must also be asked of the way Labour spend public money. 

“Their failure to get to grips with running the NHS and our transport system means the inadequate spending power we have goes on sticking-plaster solutions rather than fixing problems and building long-term sustainability,” he said.

Left Labour MP for the Cynon Valley Beth Winter called on Welsh Labour leadership candidates Jeremy Miles and Vaughan Gething to make it clear they both reject austerity.

“Welsh Labour needs to set out the case against austerity and for increased budgets both for everyday services and the funds and the specific powers needed to invest in our people’s futures,” Ms Winter said.

Unison Cymru regional secretary Jess Turner said: “This statement is barely a sticking plaster. It threatens even tougher times ahead.”

Wales TUC general secretary Shavanah Taj blamed the cuts on Tory austerity over the last 13 years and pledged that unions in Wales will work “flat out to provide security and support to members.”

Scottish unions had called for higher taxes for the wealthy, but Ms Robison declined to increase the 42 pence higher rate of income tax for those paid over £43,662 a year.

Instead, she created a band for incomes between that and the £125,140 top-rate threshold with a rate of 45 pence and, added a penny increase to the top rate to make it 48 pence.

The combined effect of not uplifting thresholds in line with pay and increasing take from the highest paid will net the Scottish government an extra £82m next year, the Finance Secretary told Parliament.

STUC general secretary Roz Foyer blamed the Westminster government for forcing austerity on Scotland and welcomed the higher rate of tax for those on higher incomes, but warned that the council-tax freeze left a hole in the budget it was never going to be able to fill.  

The STUC called for fully funded high-quality public services and warned it could not countenance any cuts packaged as “reforms.” Government should be under no illusions on this, Ms Foyer said.

Scottish Labour’s finance spokesman Michael Marra branded the budget “chaotic” and  accused the SNP of “neglecting the day job.”

But Ms Robison quoted the Welsh Finance Secretary in blaming Tory incompetence at Westminster.

“Why is it it that Michael Marra and the Labour Party are happy to support the Welsh Labour government in putting the blame where it lies, but don’t accept the same premise for the Scottish government?”

Former Scottish labour leader Richard Leonard told the Star that the budget lacked ambition, with “no plan for economic development, no plan for jobs, and no plan for public services.”