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Legislative Programme and Budget Statement (Wales)

Mr Brady, I did not hear the hon. Gentleman chuntering away on his Front Bench because of the noises that were coming from behind. I am sorry that we have wasted time in the Welsh Grand Committee debating in this fashion over procedures. The right hon. Member for Neath has been around the House for an awfully long time—he has even done two jobs at the same time, as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and Secretary of State for Wales. I would have thought that this playacting and the orchestrated attempt at disruption of the Committee were rather shaming. I intend to keep my remarks brief, to allow maximum time for Back Benchers to participate in the debate, particularly as I really wanted two separate debates in the Welsh Grand Committee: one on the Budget and one on the Queen’s Speech. After the longest and deepest recession since the second world war, Britain needs to build a new economic model, founded on the principles of freedom, fairness and responsibility. As many leading economists and financial experts across the world have commented, the most urgent priority must be to tackle the record budget deficit. Only by doing that can we restore confidence in our economy and support the recovery. In our first 10 weeks, we have taken the first steps on the long road to restoring sound management of our public finances, after Labour’s extravagance and mismanagement. Within barely a fortnight of taking office, the Chancellor had conducted and completed a review of the current year’s spending and identified just over £6 billion of savings. Following the announcement, I read unfounded reports in the press suggesting that Wales was being hit hardest in the savings we would have to find. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, the percentage cut to the Wales departmental expenditure limit, or DEL, is below the average percentage cut in the DEL for the United Kingdom as a whole. However, Wales must play its part, and it is of course for the Welsh Assembly Government to decide where, and when, to make the savings. We have followed through on our promise to allow the Assembly Government the flexibility to defer all or part of the savings until next year, if they so wish. We await their decision. At the same time as the savings were announced, we announced a further £23 million for Wales, which reflects the Barnett consequentials of recycled savings, used by the Government on targeted measures such as social housing, further education, apprenticeships and business rates. However, let me be clear: what we cannot afford to do is to continue increasing public debt at the rate of £3 billion each week—that is half the Welsh health and social services budget for the entire year and more than seven times the annual budgets for the four Welsh police forces put together. An important achievement is the announcement and establishment of the independent Office for Budget Responsibility, which has delivered its first report. The power that the Chancellor has enjoyed for centuries to determine the growth and fiscal forecast now resides with an independent body immune to external political factors.