Wales TUC: UK Chancellor must deliver for Wales

The Chancellor’s fiscal statement is the first and best opportunity for the UK Government to correct the mistakes of the last decade.

Welsh public services have endured year after year of inadequate funding settlements from the UK Government and are facing unprecedented challenges this winter. The Prime Minister and Chancellor have a golden opportunity this week to change course and begin to repair the damage done by austerity and inflation.

We want to see the UK Government announce:

• Fair funding for Wales– funding that properly reflects the pressures that our public services are confronting.
• A plan to get pay rising for everyone with a higher minimum wage and new rights for unions to set minimum pay and conditions across the economy.
• Long overdue fair funding for capital investment in Wales so that we can build the modern, green infrastructure that the country needs to drive up living standards.
• A plan to bring forward the uprating of benefits in line with inflation to ensure that people are getting the money they need in their pockets now and not having to wait until April next year.

The Bank of England is forecasting five quarters of recession from the end of this year, and a major rise in unemployment.

There is no place in a 21st century economy for “trickle-down” economics that puts the interests of the rich first. This outdated mode of thinking has been tested to destruction and has failed repeatedly.

We need an increase in demand to avert a further economic crisis. UK Government needs to learn the lessons following the 2008 crisis where a decade of cut backs in government spending, including cuts in corporation tax, led to weak growth, and productivity and wages flatlining.