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The Budget

I am happy to recognise that Scotland and the current Scottish Executive—the SNP—are extremely important for recognising how funding is skewed throughout the whole of the UK. We need every part of the United Kingdom to recognise the need for a review, and the approach it should take, so that fairness, which is the hallmark of this Administration, can perpetuate funding settlements throughout. Is the hon. Gentleman telling me that Scotland gets a fair share, or would he say that Scotland gets more than its fair share, perhaps at the cost of Wales? I will happily allow him to intervene, should he want to—[ Interruption. ] He is obviously not prepared to intervene, so I will take that as some sort of endorsement of his colleagues and friends in the SNP with whom he is closely allied. The point about the Barnett formula is that it is mathematical, yet despite the fact that the Budget is fiscally neutral, Wales has benefited to the tune of more than £60 million, which demonstrates that the Budget has benefited Wales, as Wales is obviously receiving more than it would have done otherwise. Of course, there are considerable details and opportunities in the Budget. Opposition parties always seem to focus on inputs, and that has been the habit of the Welsh Assembly Government over many years. We can look at the input of money into Wales. European structural funding is now close to £3 billion, so resources have not been a problem for Wales over the past decade or more because of that European aid. However, despite all the resources that have been made available, Wales remains the poorest part of the United Kingdom, although it has had exactly the same opportunity as every other part of the United Kingdom. The Welsh Assembly Government need to accept responsibility for failing west Wales and the valleys, for which the European aid was intended, and for the knock-on effects of that failure in all parts of Wales. The Budget takes a completely different approach. Rather than focusing on inputs and how much cash is being spent, it is an attempt to create opportunities to release the private sector, because there is a disproportionate dependence on the public sector in Wales. The Welsh Assembly Government need to accept responsibility for that, because whenever there was a problem, their response was to create a job to try to fix it and simply to pump money at it, rather than looking for opportunities to bring the voluntary and private sectors together to generate wealth. That point relates to our exciting policy of enterprise zones. Vale of Glamorgan has not received a penny of European aid from structural funds since the agreement was reached in 1999 and the money started to be drawn down in 2000. Obviously, it did not form part of the map that was submitted for west Wales and the valleys. Enterprise zones offer a real opportunity to the Vale of Glamorgan, however, and particularly to a town such as Barry, which is Wales’s largest town and has significant pockets of deprivation. The zones offer an opportunity for the private sector within those areas to have reduced business rates and better opportunities. Again, however, it comes down to the policies of the Welsh Assembly Government if the benefits are to be delivered. I have asked them formally about this, and I would hope that there would be cross-party support on where we can win and gain these enterprise zones. Barry needs to be one of those, not only because of its deprivation and need, and the excitement that could be generated within Barry, but on the basis of what Barry has not received over the last decade when so much money has been thrown at west Wales and the valleys.