The 2016-17 Welsh Government budget has been announced and there is a big role for construction and a priority for low carbon – but what does it mean in practice?

The budget highlights are – 

• Health and social care: With the extra £260m for NHS, the overall departmental budget is rising from £6.486bn to £6.731bn
• Local government: including inspection bodies and fire services, will fall from £3.432bln to £3.344bn.
• Communities and Tackling Poverty: Fall from £336m to £333m
• Economy, Science and Transport: Fall from £612m to £587m
• Education and skills: Slight rise of £1.578bln to £1.580bln
• Natural Resources: Fall from £294m to £277m (revenue)
• Central services and administration Rising from £292m to £300m - a rise of £7m. 

Some of the detail: 

• Natural resources budget with capital and revenue added together to fall from £357m to £366m, a cut of £21m.
• Climate change programmes have been deemed a priority - the budget will rise from £48m to £73m
• Additional (traditional capital) of £5m to Nest
• Additional (traditional capital of £5m to Green Growth Wales (to support an initiative which aims to increase and accelerate projects to deliver green investment in Wales. It focuses in infrastructure projects which will reduce carbon emissions, including renewable energy generation, resource efficiency, and energy from waste projects
• Local government improvement funding cut by £31m to just £3m.
• The higher education budget is falling from £129m to £87m, a cut by £41m.

 Full detail available here

Full narrative here

CEW will be responding with some more details and debate about what the budget plans mean for Welsh construction and the part that CEW stakeholders can play in delivering upon Government targets.