Platfform is pleased by elements of the budget, but there are significant missed opportunities.  

We are hugely pleased and relieved by the increase of £21m to the Housing Support Grant (HSG). That is an important development for housing services, and will mean we can support people in housing crisis; this is critical in helping people avoid the personal impact of homelessness. We do need Welsh Government to make clear that this must be passed on to providers as fully and as quickly as possible after the final budget next year. After last year’s budget, some commissioners took as long as six months to finalise any uplift as a result of the HSG funding increase. 

We are also encouraged by the increase in NHS funding, and the announcement of additional funding for social housing. However, for social housing, the figure of £81m doesn’t come close to the Audit Wales figure of c.£600m needed to build the housing that Wales needs. We hope that in budget negotiations, the amount allocated can be lifted further.  

And while we welcome the increase in capital funding for the NHS, we want to see how much of this will be allocated to improvements in the mental health estate, which, as Mind Cymru have highlighted, is in a poor state. 

We are concerned too, that for services commissioned from the third sector, significant proportions of additional revenue funding will need to be allocated directly to cover costs incurred due to changes around National Insurance. While the NHS and local government themselves have an exemption, the services they commission do not.  

We need a clear decision and action, urgently, by the UK Government, to either exempt the third sector from the National Insurance changes or provide additional funding directly. It is also one of the rare simple solutions you will find in policy and politics.  For the first time since 2010, it is the same political party in Cardiff Bay, as Westminster. That gives the Welsh Government a powerful opportunity to make the case for this shift in policy.  

We understand that these decisions are tough, and Welsh Government have acted with the right intentions. But because of the National Insurance changes brought about by Westminster, there is a risk that much of the new funding for services in this budget will go straight back to London and the Treasury – the opposite of the Welsh Government’s intention to improve services for the people of Wales. 

The UK Government has the power to resolve this: either to exempt the third sector or provide additional funding to mitigate against these cost increases. We want to see urgent action by the Welsh Government to make this case as powerfully as possible, to their colleagues in Government in London. We hope that the UK Government will listen to the very real need for support, within the third sector.  

Time is running out to prevent the harm that will be caused by this new charity tax.