So there we have it, the devil is in the detail, the Welsh budget has been cut in real terms by 11.4%, with capital spending, money to be invested in new roads, hospitals and schools, being cut by 41%. This works out at around £4.8 billion over the next four years.interestingly enough, the previous New Labour Government, planned, this time over three years to cut Wales' budget by £3 billion. The Con Dem government now also plan cuts of approximately £3 billion over next 3 years which works out at about the same. While the ConDem cuts are a heavy blow, so would the proposed New Labour cuts have been. One thing is true, both the former New Labour Government and the current ConDem Government have no interest in making sure that Wales has a fair funding formula.
The Welsh budget, this year, is some £1.4 billion less than it would have been if we had kept pace with spending increases in England under New Labour. It's also worth noting that Spending Review also announced a further £7 billion cut from the welfare budget, on top of £11 billion previously announced over the Summer. There is a significant degree of geographical unfairness (for want of a better phrase) in this Spending Review on a number of levels. Wales, amongst the devolved nations, is worst off, and is taking a bigger hit than Scotland and Northern Ireland. There are significant if not huge differences between Wales and the south-east of England.
The ConDems are carrying on with the Crossrail, a multi-billion pound infrastructure project in London, not to mention three major science projects all of which are located in the south-east of England, not to mention continued spending on museums, galleries and culture in London.These cuts are far too deep and far too fast, they threaten Wales’s economic recovery and could expose us to the risk of a ‘double-dip’ recession. I (and no doubt many other people would expect this from a Consevative Government, but, their super keen Lib Dem little helpers should really know better.
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