Budget live: Wales looks at higher charges for university, dentistry and care for the elderly

The Welsh Government is "carefully examining" raising university tuition fees, dentistry fees and charges for care for the elderly in their own homes. Finance Minister Rebecca Evans made the announcement as she revealed details of the draft Welsh budget for 2024-25.

Health services and councils are the only two protected areas in the Welsh Government's £22bn budget for the coming year with other areas facing significant cuts. Ms Evans described it as “most stark and painful budget choices for Wales in the devolution era”.

She said that Wales' real-terms spending power had dropped by £1.3bn as a result of inflation since 2021 and the block grant from Westminster was not sufficient enough to respond to the extreme pressures that public services, businesses and people are facing.

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The budget for 2024/25 includes extra £450m for the NHS and the core local government settlement will increase by 3.1%. But even with the additional funding, health boards and councils face a very difficult year ahead.

Ms Evans said: "We have reshaped departmental spending plans so that we can invest more in the NHS and protect core local government funding for schools, social care and the other services we rely on every day."

The Welsh Government said that the additional funding for the NHS in 2024-25 comes on top of the additional £425m which was announced in October for the remainder of this financial year, and which was baselined into the budget for the future. This means that health will receive more than a 4% increase for 2024-25, compared to less than 1% in England.

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