Labour happy to keep Wales in the poor house

2.59.10pm GMT Wed 23rd Nov 2005

The Labour Assembly Government admitted today that it was happy for Wales not to receive more money from Westminster just in case Wales became wealthier and received less in the future.

The bizarre claim came today from Sue Essex today, under questioning from Mike German, Assembly leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats.

At finance questions today, she refused to accept that a needs-based funding system for Wales would be a good thing. She said she feared that if Wales did become a richer country, it would receive less funding from the UK.

Mr German asked:

"We have a needs based formula for distributing money throughout Wales for the Health service. We may or may not think it is right, but Townsend and its variants is a sophisticated formula designed to make sure that local health services are properly funded. The same is true of local government, where a very complicated formula tries to distribute resources according to need and cost of providing services. Why is it right that funding is distributed based on a measure of need within Wales, but not between England, Wales and Scotland?"

Mrs Essex claimed that under the Barnett Formula - the 25 year old system which allocates government spending across the UK -that there was a certainty and "clear view" of the money that Wales gets; even though it is not allocated on a fair basis. She went on to say that she didn't want to risk changing to a fair, needs-based formula because should Wales become rich it'd get less funding.