Chancellor’s statement doesn’t go far enough says Finance Minister

Finance Minister Rebecca Evans (pictured) says the job support measures set out by the Chancellor yesterday are ‘a step in the right direction’, but warns that the level of support does not go far enough to guarantee a decent income for workers.

The Minister also expressed her disappointed at the news of a one-year spending review and called on the UK Government to put an end to its "stop-start approach" to handling public finances.

Rebecca Evans said: “Whilst the Chancellor's announcement is a step in the right direction, I am calling on the UK Government to ensure that under this new scheme employers will not be any worse off than they were under the Job Retention Scheme. 

“Throughout the Covid crisis, the package of support we have provided to businesses in Wales has been more generous than that in any other part of the UK. We are still working through the details of the announcement, but we anticipate that the support we will be providing to businesses who have to close as a result of the two week firebreak will still be more generous than that provided in England.”

The Minister continued: “We also need to see an end to the UK Government’s stop-start approach to handling public finances. This approach, coupled with a lack of multi-year investment, is deeply unhelpful and makes the task of managing our budgets an extremely difficult one.

“We need long term spending commitments from the UK Government to enable us to continue to protect the people of Wales from the worst impacts of the pandemic, and to help us better manage our public services and start to lay the foundations for our recovery.”