Extra £8.6 billion for Wales since start of the Covid-19 pandemic
The UK Government has allocated unprecedented extra funding to the Welsh Government to help its response to the pandemic.
Wales has benefitted from £8.6 billion of UK government funding to the devolved administrations, figures released by the Treasury show.
The annual publication of the Block Grant Transparency shows that since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic the Scottish Government has received an additional £14.5 billion, the Welsh Government an additional £8.6 billion and the Northern Ireland Executive an additional £5.0 billion.
This funding has enabled the Welsh Government to provide support to individuals, businesses and public services across Wales in response to Covid-19 and will continue to support the recovery through 2021-22.
This comes as part of the unprecedented package of support for the whole of the UK throughout the pandemic, with £352 billion spent right across the UK on Covid-19 measures. In Wales this included protecting more than 460,000 jobs through the furlough scheme, £173 million in self-employment support, help for businesses and the procurement of vaccines.
Secretary of State for Wales, Simon Hart MP said:
The UK Government has supported Wales throughout the pandemic, not only by securing an additional £8.6 billion block grant for the Welsh Government so it could fund its response, but also by providing unprecedented UK-wide funding to ensure individuals and businesses across the country were supported throughout.
This support, which also included supplying vaccines to Wales, remains essential as we continue to build back better. We provided the necessary support through the pandemic, and now we will lead the recovery as we build our way out of it.
Chief Secretary to the Treasury Steve Barclay said:
Throughout the pandemic the UK government has always ensured Wales is getting the right support – with £8.6 billion of additional spending.
Over the past year in we’ve protected millions of jobs and businesses in Wales with furlough and support schemes, our vaccine rollout is unlocking the economy, and our Plan for Jobs is levelling up opportunity and helping us build back better across the UK.
The UK government’s Plan for Jobs is helping to support, create and protect jobs across the UK. The Kickstart scheme is already helping thousands of 16-24 year-olds into work, the Restart scheme will help around a million people who’ve been out of work for more than a year, and 13,500 new Work Coaches have been recruited to give tailored support to people out of work.