A new report from a leading left of centre Think Tank, the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR) claims that far from Wales losing out under the Budget squeeze that Barnett offers protection against the cuts coming because the majority of the formula is based on Health and Education.
The report also warns ‘that public opinion may not tolerate a situation whereby the devolved administrations, and Scotland in particular, is perceived to be suffering less pain than England. Previous ippr research has shown that the number of people in England who think that Scotland gets ‘more than its fair share of funding’ has almost doubled in recent years (from 22% in 2003 to 40% in 2009) which suggests growing public unease about the distribution of money. This is only likely to grow if spending disparities widen during an era of cuts.’
Now apart from the fact several reports including Holtham and the House of Lords have concluded the opposite on the Barnett Formula which unfair to Wales given the problems we have, its seems to be reinforcing the UK Treasury and Labour view that Wales does rather well out of Barnett and there is no need to change anything.
It also questions the wisdom of giving the devolved administrations fiscal powers saying ‘that giving devolved administrations more fiscal powers is not necessarily the answer, however. The argument that giving them greater power to respond to local economic circumstances has to be offset against the danger that greater autonomy will simply lead devolved governments to spend more, knowing that in the end they will be bailed out by the UK Treasury if things go wrong’.
And while it maybe be good news for Labour, again it reinforces the view that for any Labour politician it still party unity ahead of everything else, if Wales is to gets a fair share we can only hope that the Conservative and maybe the Lib Dems are serious about making changes to a block grant based on need because Labour have stalled at Barnett Reform for 13 years.Any source
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