SAM ROWLANDS, Member of the Welsh Parliament for North Wales, has warned that the Welsh Government’s budget does not deliver for the people of Wales.
This week the Welsh Government published their final budget for the 2026-27 financial year following an agreement with Plaid Cymru to support Labour’s spending plans.
Speaking in the Senedd, during the debate, Mr Rowlands, Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Finance said: “We made the choice, perhaps unexpectedly, to reach out to the First Minister this time around to see if a budget deal that works for the people of Wales could be agreed upon. But the Welsh Government, chose to do a deal with their friends in Plaid Cymru instead.
“When we started those conversations there was around £600 million of unallocated money left for next year’s budget and that’s why, for a start, we wanted to see if some of that could be used to scrap stamp duty here in Wales, the land transaction tax on primary residences.
“We wanted to see a budget that has tax cuts for family firms and family farms to give them a fighting chance to carry on, a budget that supports our farmers, who work tirelessly to feed the nation while facing mounting costs and growing uncertainty and pressures
“We’re not going to see the improvements that we need to see desperately here in Wales if we continue to see Plaid Cymru and Labour working together as they have done for the last 27 years.
“Twenty-seven years of socialist policies under Welsh Labour and Plaid Cymru have resulted in Wales having the highest unemployment, the longest NHS waiting lists in the UK, and the worst education outcomes in the UK, as well as the lowest pay packets.
It hasn’t been working, it’s not working today, and it’s not going to work tomorrow.”
Welsh Conservatives have been heavily critical of the budget deal, and Mr Rowlands added:
“Plaid and Labour’s budget stitch-up is a bad deal for Wales.
“A budget that contains funding for an ever-bloating bureaucracy, foreign aid, overseas offices, the Nation of Sanctuary plan, Senedd expansion and the creation of 36 more politicians is a budget that will not address the people’s priorities.
“Only the Welsh Conservatives can be trusted to cut waste so we can cut taxes and fix our vital public services.”
