Government should increase spending to meet Welsh needs

Welsh Finance Minister Rebecca Evans and Local Government Minister Julie James have called on the UK government to end austerity and provide a much-needed boost to public services.

Joining forces with the Welsh Local Government Association, the ministers have penned a joint letter to the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, in which they urge the government to recognise the rising costs and pressures faced by public services and press for the necessary funding and flexibility to address these concerns.

The joint letter states: “Whilst we welcome the increases to health spending announced last year and more recently, this has to be matched with increased investment across all public services. Local services have done all the heavy lifting during austerity with some services seeing real time reductions of up to 60 per cent. We want assurances that these local services will receive new investment to meet the growing demands during this time of unprecedented uncertainty. We urge you to invest in the future of the UK now and provide the much-needed boost our public services deserve.”