Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011

Journal Column – 23rd March

Despite an overwhelming Yes vote in the recent referendum – a message to Westminster that said the people of Wales have confidence and faith in our National Assembly – the Conservative and Liberal Democrat contempt for our nation continues – this time in the form of Year End Flexibility.

If you’ve ever wondered why there is a sharp increase in road improvements carried out by the local authority towards to the end of tax year, it is because councils need to spend their budgets before or return the unspent funds.  Local authorities are rarely allowed to ‘carry over’ unspent monies into the following year because of rules set out by the UK Treasury.

Over the past year, David Cameron has, quite wrongly, portrayed the UK economy to be similar to a household budget which needs to be brought under control.  But only for the purposes of continuing this theme, like a household saving for a new car, the Welsh Government has ‘put a bit aside each month’ to development a “Capital Pool” for major infrastructure projects such as schools, hospitals and roads.  The pool currently stands at £385million.  This is money which has already been given to Wales under the unfair funding formula.  The Westminster Government however has now decided to claw back this money from Welsh communities and into the UK Treasury.

The Welsh Government would quite rightly be criticised if it was spending money for the sake of spending.  But being prudent with already tight budgets, building up a capital fund whilst the plans for developments are put in place, is nothing but sound and sensible economic policy.

A former Conservative Secretary of State for Wales, John Redwood MP, sent back £100million from the Wales Office because, he said, Wales didn’t need it.  The way the Conservatives look at Wales clearly still hasn’t changed.  They and their Lib Dem partners will starve our communities of vital resources if they continue with this unfair action

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