"Ill thought out, lacking in detail and irresponsible shadow Welsh budget" says Peter Black

Commenting on Conservative proposals to impose further cuts on top of those already proposed by the Welsh Government, Peter Black, Welsh Liberal Democrats Shadow Finance Minister said:

“The Conservative shadow budget is ill thought out, lacking in detail and irresponsible. They have chosen to turn a blind eye to wasteful bureaucracy and over-management in the health service and instead pay for the inflated salaries of directors. That is not responsible budgeting.

“They are prioritising slashing public services and not dealing with waste and inefficiency in government spending.

“They also don’t realise that throwing money at the NHS and then have it misspent is not the way to have a healthier nation. Social housing, education, social care and improving people’s general wellbeing is the way to get a healthier nation. If you cut the social housing budget, for example, people will continue to live in poorly maintained houses which will, in turn, have a detrimental effect on their health. The Conservatives just don’t get the old maxim that prevention is better than cure.”

On the massive cuts in economy and transport budget, Peter Black added:

“While we were disappointed that the Labour and Plaid Government were making substantial cuts to the economy and transport budget, the Tories would decimate the budget by making even further cuts. The Welsh economy is in a very fragile position at the moment. Just yesterday, it was confirmed that Wales was the poorest nation, in economic terms, in the UK. Now is not the time to be taking a machete to the economy and transport budget.”