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The Budget

The hon. Gentleman is well aware that I am not here to battle the case of Scotland; I am here to fight the case of Wales, which is what I am doing. Despite recently scrapping the housing revenue account subsidy scheme for England, the UK Government continue to force Welsh local authorities to pay £100 million per annum. Any changes to the scheme, as the Chief Secretary outlined earlier, must be Treasury-neutral. That means that the Welsh local authorities, despite the fact that the scheme does not exist anywhere else in the UK, will continue to have to pay £100 million to the Treasury. There can be no justification for continuing to siphon off these funds from the poorest communities in Wales.