Extra military tech spend benefits Wales – Reeves
Defence businesses in north and south Wales will benefit from a share of more than £2bn of extra funding for cutting edge military technology, the chancellor has said.
Delivering her Spring Statement, Rachel Reeves also confirmed a tightening of rules to qualify for Personal Independence Payments (Pips) claimed by more than 250,000 working aged people in Wales with a long-term physical, mental health condition or disability.
She said “it can’t be right” that some people were improperly using Pips.
Plaid Cymru accused her of targeting the vulnerable while the Welsh Conservatives called Labour the party of “stagnation”.
Updating MPs on the state of the UK economy on Wednesday, Reeves said a “changing world” meant that more needed to be spent on defence.
She promised an extra £2.2bn for defence spending, benefitting places such as Newport in south Wales, which is a hub for high tech semi-conductors, and Deeside – home of the Airbus aerospace company.
On welfare spending, Reeves said “it can’t be right” to “write off” an entire generation who are out of work and improperly using Pips and rules would be tightened.
More than 14% of working age people in Wales, about 275,000 people, claim Pip.
She confirmed that health-related universal credit for new claimants, which was already due to be halved from April 2026 under a package announced last week, will now be frozen at its new lower level of £50 per week until 2030.
Currently around 150,000 people in Wales claim the health element of universal credit.
‘Targeting the vulnerable’
Plaid Cymru MP Ben Lake accused Labour of bringing back “austerity”.
In a statement, the party’s economy spokesperson said: “Instead of taxing the ultra-wealthy and closing tax loopholes, the chancellor is targeting the vulnerable with deep cuts to welfare that will drive poverty and inequality in Wales.
“For all the pain inflicted on communities there seems to be little economic gain: the OBR analysis suggests these measures will encourage lacklustre growth at best.”
The OBR, or Office for Budget Responsibility, is the independent watchdog that assesses government spending and taxation.
For the Welsh Conservatives, their Senedd finance spokesperson Sam Rowlands said: “Rachel Reeves’ first Budget resulted in a shrinking economy and with it, a fiscal deficit, but sadly her emergency budget today will fail to correct Labour’s mistakes.
“By choosing to raise taxes on businesses and farming families, Labour have proven that they are not the party of work, nor the party of growth. They are the party of stagnation,” he added.
Welsh Liberal Democrat MP David Chadwick said: “The government could have raised money instead by asking the big banks, social media giants and online gambling companies to pay their fair share”.
“The Spring Statement also shows that this government does not understand our rural communities at all.
“They’ve refused to cancel the cruel family farm tax.”
