Mark Drakeford: Welsh authorities going through ‘hardest monetary state of affairs’ since devolution

The Welsh authorities is going through its “toughest financial situation” since devolution, the nation’s first minister has mentioned.

Mark Drakeford mentioned there have been “significant financial pressures” going through the federal government’s price range for the 2023-24 price range.

Members of the Senedd are at present in recess however Mr Drakeford mentioned these within the cupboard will work all through the summer season to “mitigate” the budgetary pressures.

The first minister mentioned his authorities’s priorities might be to guard “frontline public services” whereas “targeting support towards those at greatest need”.

Mr Drakeford has blamed the budgetary constraints on “record levels of inflation” and the “mismanagement of the UK economy and public finances by successive UK governments”.

The Welsh authorities mentioned it had drawn on “all [its] available resources” when drawing up the price range.

Despite this, its monetary place after the UK authorities’s Budget in March was “up to £900m lower in real terms” than on the final spending overview in 2021, the primary minister mentioned.

The Welsh Conservatives, the biggest opposition social gathering within the Senedd, mentioned Labour had been making “their own problems worse”.

In a written assertion on Wednesday, Mark Drakeford mentioned the cupboard met on 1 August to debate the monetary state of affairs going through the Welsh authorities.

Mr Drakeford mentioned he would offer an extra replace to members of the Senedd as soon as ministers have thought of areas the place cash might be saved.

The assertion comes after the Welsh authorities confirmed on the finish of June it might cease offering free college meals in the course of the summer season holidays, going through criticism from opposition events.

The programme was first launched in the course of the COVID pandemic and now helps households combating the value of residing.

Some councils have since introduced they are going to be immediately funding the scheme so it could actually proceed of their areas.

Welsh Conservative chief, Andrew RT Davies, mentioned cash needs to be spent on “vital public services”.

“Labour continue to make their own problems worse by pushing their extreme ideology and vanity projects, such as costly default 20mph speed limits, and sending more politicians to Cardiff Bay,” he mentioned.

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A report revealed on the finish of March confirmed the Welsh authorities missed out on £155.5m on the top of the pandemic resulting from its “poor” accounts administration.

The Welsh authorities mentioned on the time the Treasury refused a request to hold funds over to the next monetary 12 months – a transfer it known as “wholly unacceptable”.

A Treasury spokesperson mentioned the Welsh authorities’s funding preparations had been “applied in the usual way”.