Article written by Gareth Thomas, National Assembly for Wales Research Service
The Welsh Government laid the Final Budget 2014-15 on 3 December 2013. There have been very few changes made between the Draft and Final Budgets, these are summarised below:
- In 2014-15, the Welsh Government has allocated an additional £5 million in capital as financial transactions funding for Cardiff Airport. This allocation has been transferred from reserves.
- Additional revenue funding has been allocated for a Local Government Borrowing Initiative to accelerate delivery of the 21st Century Schools Programme. The allocations are for £3.5 million in 2014-15 and £8 million in 2015-16.
- To support these allocations to the 21st Century Schools Programme, revenue savings have been identified within the Education and Skills Main Expenditure Group (MEG) of £1.75 million in 2014-15 and £4 million in 2015-16. Additionally, there will be revenue savings of £1.75 million in 2014-15 and £2.1 million in 2015-16 from the Central Services and Administration MEG. The remaining £1.9 million revenue funding for the 21st Century Schools Programme in 2015-16 is funded from reserves.
- An additional £30 million in capital funding has been allocated in 2015-16 deliver the 21st Century Schools Programme these allocations are transferred from reserves.
Table 1 summarises the changes to Welsh Government departmental expenditure limit (DEL) allocations for each MEG between the Draft Budget and Final Budget 2014-15. Between the Draft and Final Budgets, total Welsh Government DEL allocations have increased by £5 million in 2014-15 and £31.9 million in 2015-16.
Table 1: Changes in total Welsh Government DEL allocations by main expenditure group between Draft Budget and Final Budget 2014-15 (in £ thousand)
Source: Research Service calculations from Welsh Government budgets
In terms of the overall changes in DEL between 2013-14 and the 2014-15 Final Budget, figure 1 shows the percentage change in cash terms in DEL for each main expenditure group. It can be seen that:
- Economy, Science and Transport and Housing and Regeneration saw the largest cash increases.
- Local Government, Education and Skills and Culture and Sport saw cash decreases.
Figure 1: Change in total cash terms DEL allocations by main expenditure group between 2013-14 Supplementary Budget and 2014-15 Final Budget
Source: Research Service calculations from Welsh Government budgets
