Other bloggers have written about George Osborne comments on the Barnett Formula when he was on a visit to Cardiff last month saying if he were Chancellor after the General Election he would establish an Independent Commission to consider needs based formula which would certainly benefit Wales.
On the surface it sounds like good news. except that there’s already an Independent Commission in existence set up to look at the way Wales is funded through the Barnett Formula’s and to make recommendations about what could replace it called the Holtham Commission and it reported the first part of its findings to the Welsh Assembly Government last summer.
However according to the Western Mail ‘Aberdare-born Mr Holtham has sent his commission’s working paper to the MP after reading an interview in the Western Mail with Mr Osborne, who was on a visit to Cardiff earlier this month.
Their needs-based working paper concluded that Wales would gain around £400m from a new model that took into account factors such as deprivation and the cost of delivering public services.
In Scotland Barnett is more generous than in Wales, with a £120 per head ratio settlement to the English average of £100, while in Northern Ireland it is £124.
The commission’s working paper – Replacing Barnett With a Needs-based Formula – concluded Scotland should in fact only receive £105 per head. If implemented this would result in its current annual budget of £28bn being cut by £3bn.
The secretariat of the (Holtham) commission said yesterday: “We confirm Gerry Holtham has sent a copy of the needs paper to the Shadow Chancellor. As yet, we have received no reply.”
So much for the Conservatives being comfortable with Welsh Devolution and keeping up to date with developments, it makes you wonder if Nick Bourne or anyone in his Assembly Group sent a copy of the report to the Shadow Chancellor and if they did why George Osborne chose to ignore it?Any source
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