PARLIAMENTARY DEBATE
Budget 2024 - 11 December 2024 (Commons/Commons Chamber)

If I may, I first want to thank the workers and emergency responders across Wales for all their work over the weekend to protect people and property during Storm Darragh. I am sure the whole House will join me in sending condolences to the families of the two people who lost their lives.

The autumn Budget delivered for Wales for the first time in a generation, and the Welsh Government have received the largest settlement in real terms since devolution, at £21 billion. That includes an additional £1.7 billion through the Barnett formula, providing a spending boost to public services such as the NHS.

I associate myself with the words of the Secretary of State about all those impacted by Storm Darragh and all those working hard to restore power.

The Welsh Government’s draft Budget yesterday noted that the UK Government will be providing additional support to mitigate the cost to public organisations of the additional employers’ national insurance contributions. However, the details remain to be published. Given that many of these organisations will soon be setting their own budgets, could the Secretary of State urge the Treasury to bring forward clarity urgently so that local authorities and public organisations in Wales can have the clarity they need to set their budgets?

The Welsh Government will receive additional funds to help with the cost of national insurance contributions, on top of that record Budget settlement of £21 billion—the biggest since the dawn of devolution. However, that critical funding and all the investment announced in the Budget yesterday by the Welsh Government will only get to where it is needed if the hon. Gentleman’s party colleagues in the Senedd vote for the Budget.

The Budget commitment of £80 million for the Tata transition board was indeed welcome, but Thrive, the domestic abuse organisation in Neath and Port Talbot, is concerned that since the Tata announcement there has been a rise both in reported incidents of domestic violence and in demand for prevention services for perpetrators. Can the Secretary of State provide assurances that the transition board will look at this as a priority funded project?

I pay tribute to my hon. Friend for all her work to tackle domestic abuse. She is such an effective advocate for the people she campaigns for. I also want to thank Thrive for all the work that it does in Neath and Port Talbot. I want to assure my hon. Friend that one of the transition board’s aims is to support the wellbeing of workers and their families in our steel communities, and we are studying the data closely to target future releases of funding in the most effective way possible.

First, my sympathies go out to all residents and businesses impacted by the weekend’s storm. I also thank Andrew R. T. Davies for his leadership of our party in the Senedd, and I wish Darren Millar well.

The UK Labour Chancellor has plummeted business confidence through the floor with her Budget actions on the family farm tax and the new jobs tax, and by whacking the hospitality sector with an £1 billion bill, according to UK Hospitality. Will the Secretary of State confirm that there is no benefit for Wales, despite her figures, and that this is simply a money merry-go-round taking from Welsh businesses, destroying jobs in the meantime, and squashing growth, meaning poorer public services as the frontline remains squeezed?

I appreciate that the hon. Lady, representing a constituency on the south coast of England, may not be familiar with the landscape of businesses in Wales. In Wales, 94.6% of small and medium-sized enterprises are microbusinesses, and 3.8% are small businesses. We protected the smallest businesses and more than doubled the employment allowance to £10,500 in the Budget, meaning that over half of small and microbusinesses will pay less or no national insurance contributions at all.

The Secretary of State celebrates funding for Wales yet fails to mention that, outside of the NHS, the Welsh Government Budget is 10% lower in real terms compared with—wait for it—2010. This falls far short of fixing the foundations of collapsing public services. Does she believe that a Budget that leaves Wales with less compared with 14 years ago is really a Budget worth celebrating?

I think someone should get the right hon. Lady a calculator, because the Plaid Cymru asks for the Budget would create at least £5 billion a year in unfunded bills for the taxpayer. Its plans for HS2, the winter fuel allowance and the two-child benefit cap would mean significant spending cuts in Wales. We are not prepared to subject the people of Wales to that. If she wants further investment in Wales, her party needs to vote for the Welsh Government Budget in the Senedd.

I am glad that the Secretary of State has mentioned HS2, because her Government’s Budget confirmed that HS2 will run to Euston, and that stretch alone will cost £9.4 billion. HS2 construction work also means that passengers from Wales will face disruption, as trains will be diverted away from Paddington for seven years. She previously said that HS2 is “no longer in existence.” Does she stand by this statement, given that Welsh passengers will bear the huge costs of this project?

The right hon. Lady knows that I was referring to the second phase of HS2, which the Conservative Government cancelled. And she knows, because I have said it before and will say it again, that I remain very angry about the previous Government’s broken promises on rail and on HS2.

I am working in partnership with the Welsh Government to develop a long-term, sustainably funded package of much-needed rail infrastructure improvements. I met Great Western Railway with the Under-Secretary of State for Wales, my hon. Friend the Member for Llanelli (Dame Nia Griffith), just last week to discuss mitigations in relation to Old Oak Common.