Nawr mae angen Llafur ddangos sut mae hynny wedi creu gwahaniaeth” yn ysgrifennu Sioned Williams AS
Cyhoeddwyd yr erthygl hon yn Glamorgan Gazette ddydd Iau 10 Hydref 2024 (yn Saesneg).
Our public services are taking a double hit
From health to housing, from care to classrooms, our public services are already in a state of crisis. Just recently, health boards in Wales revealed a shortfall of tens of millions in their funding, schools are being forced to lay off teachers, and councils across Wales are warning that hundreds could lose their jobs and their services will struggle to meet demand if they don’t see an increase in their funding.
While the changing of the guard in Westminster came with the campaign promise of ‘Change’, Keir Starmer’s UK Labour Government has instead continued with the cruel Tory austerity agenda, by continuing to refuse to increase spending even when that hits people who are already struggling.
And Wales is getting the worst of it. Due to an outdated and unfair method for calculating the amount of money that should be allocated to Wales from the UK Treasury – a mechanism known as the Barnett Formula – the people of Wales are already losing out when it comes to funding from Westminster.
This means that our public services are taking a double hit – once from Labour’s cuts such as scrapping the Winter Fuel Payment for most pensioners, and a second time by way of the inadequate way Wales is funded – and it’s our public services which are bearing the brunt.
Given it’s the most vulnerable in our communities who need the support of public services the most, it’s not hard to see how cuts to these services would impact them the most. The Welsh Labour Government have made much of saying everything would be better with Labour in power in Westminster. Now we need Labour to put their money where their mouth is.
Local authorities provide most of our frontline public services, and they are rightly worried about the cuts they’ll be forced to make. I met with the leaders of Neath Port Talbot Council last week, who are facing extra pressure from the loss of thousands of jobs at Tata steelworks and in the supply chain. That’s why in the Senedd this week I will be asking what discussions the Welsh Government has had with the UK Government about ensuring adequate funding for Welsh public services. We also need to see specific additional funding for Neath Port Talbot Council and neighbouring local authorities like Bridgend, where many Tata employees live, so they can meet the needs of residents who are facing such a difficult time and to help support plans to grow the local economy after such a heavy blow.