EARLIER this month the Welsh Labour Government unveiled its draft budget for 2018-19. This budget is the first time the Welsh Government is responsible for raising a proportion of its own revenue, through the new land tax replacing stamp duty and the new landfill disposals tax. It marks an important milestone in our devolution journey. We set the budget in accord with our priorities to boost the Welsh economy, support our Welsh NHS and schools, as well as tackling poverty and inequality. Those priorities are at the heart of the spending plans in the Budget.

That is why £450m of extra funding has been found for the Welsh NHS in this year and next, in order to deliver high quality, sustainable health services. Schools funding will rise with an additional £62m for schools in 2018-19, increasing to a total of £108m in 2019-20. Funding for the Supporting People Grant will be protected, with an additional £10m will be allocated in each year to maintain 2017-18 levels. The Welsh Government will invest £70m over the next two years to support the delivery of our pledge to provide 30 hours a week of childcare provision for working parents of children aged three and four. £340m will go towards our commitment to build 20,000 new homes and an additional £10m to tackle homelessness in each year.

It is of course a difficult budget – the massive cuts made to the Welsh budget by the Tories in Westminster and the uncertainty over Brexit obviously have an impact. However, our priorities are different and we are and we are protecting the services that matter most to people. The UK Government’s austerity programme means that there is less money going into public services, which means some services that people value are going to radically change and some services may not continue. With more money going into the NHS that inevitably means a tougher settlement for local government. I find it very hard to stomach the sound of Conservative politicians who champion austerity in the last three General Elections but now complain bitterly about the consequences of austerity locally. Over 7 years into austerity the Tories need to take responsibility for what they have done. I live in hope but not expectation that they listen and change course. After all the Tories found £1bn for Northern Ireland. We deserve better.

It is worth remembering the scale of the cuts we face and have to manage in. Our budget will be 7% lower in real terms by the end of the decade than it was in 2010-11 which equates to more than £1.2bn removed from the Welsh public purse. This long period of sustained reductions has had an impact on all services – even those that we have been able to protect. It simply isn’t good enough for Welsh Conservatives who champion austerity at a UK level to then call for more money to go into local government. With a 7% cut in the budget, the choices we must make are not easy and get tougher with each additional cut from the UK Government. We at least have been honest with people about the scale of the challenge we face and where our priorities are.