Tomos Dafydd Davies has welcomed the commitments unveiled in the Chancellor's Comprehensive Spending Review.
The Government has set out an ambitious plan that focuses on levelling up across the country, investing in vital infrastructure that will ensure the UK builds back better from coronavirus.
This includes an additional £1.3 billion for the Welsh Government through the Barnett formula, building on the unprecedented £5 billion of upfront resource funding that the UK Government has guaranteed to Wales in 2020-21. This can be used by the Welsh Government to grow the economy, improve public service and support people and businesses across Wales.
Targeted support for Wales includes:
- Providing over £800 million investment in City and Growth deals in Wales, to provide local areas with the funding they need to drive forward local economic priorities, including the Mid Wales Growth Deal.
- Relocating civil service jobs into Wales as part of the UK Government’s ambitious agenda to reform the way decisions about places are made in government.
- More Police Officers: Wales will benefit from a share of the 6,000 additional police officers that will be recruited in 2021 as part of the commitment to recruit 20,000 additional officers by 2023, which this Spending Review commits £400 million to deliver.
Other announcements that will benefit Wales include:
- Improving digital infrastructure. The £5 billion UK Gigabit Programme will improve digital connectivity between nations and ensure that a rural location doesn’t mean slower broadband.
- Delivering 10 Freeports across the UK, with at least one in Wales, that will be a hub for global trade and investment across the UK, promote regeneration and job creation, and create hotbeds for innovation.
- The UK Shared Prosperity Fund will help to level up opportunity for people and places in need across Wales.
Welcoming the Spending Review and the support outlined by the Chancellor for Wales, Tomos Dafydd Davies said:
While the health emergency facing our country is not yet over, the economic emergency has only just begun.
The Chancellor’s Spending Review tackles this unprecedented situation head on – ensuring lives and livelihoods in Mid Wales, and across the rest of Wales, are protected and supported in the weeks and months ahead."
