TRADE unions cautiously welcomed the Welsh government’s budget for 2025-26 yesterday, but warned there was a long way to go in restoring public services.

Finance secretary Mark Drakeford said there will be an extra £1.5 billion to spend on public services in its £26bn budget for next April and said the budget was a “real opportunity” to “reinvigorate our public services.”

The health department will receive £610 million extra, while housing and local government, which funds social care, will get almost £400m.

Mr Drakeford said there had been two Westminster budgets this year with former Tory chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s final budget in March giving Wales just £1m for capital spending.

He contrasted this with Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s recent Autumn Budget, which meant Wales has £235m for capital spending over the next year to invest in infrastructure.

Welsh income tax rates have not changed since they were devolved in 2019 and Mr Drakeford ruled out any alteration this time, keeping them at the same level as England.

TUC Cymru general secretary Shavanah Taj said: “After more than a decade of austerity imposed by Westminster governments, public service staff have been left overworked, underpaid and many are facing burnout.  

“We welcome the Welsh government’s continued commitment to public services, and the emphasis on economic growth to support Wales’s industries and economy.”

Welsh Communist Party secretary Dominic MacAskill said: “While increases in public spending are welcome, there appears to be little extra money to combat the terrible damage inflicted on homes, businesses and communities across Wales by Storms Bert and Darragh.

“People rightly expect extra civil defence funding from Welsh and British Labour governments, especially when billions more can always be found to fight a war in Ukraine and defend military installations in Israel.”

Unison Cymru regional secretary Jess Turner said: “After 14 years of cruel austerity this is a welcome change of approach.

“But one budget cannot fix the 14 years of underfunding Wales has suffered. There must be sustained investment coupled with a realistic long-term strategy to address the challenges in social care and the NHS.”

Equity Wales’s Simon Curtis called the draft budget disappointing for the arts.

The union pointed out that the extra £1m funding for Arts Council Wales does not make up for the cuts of previous years and stood in contrast to the Scottish government’s £34m increase for arts and culture last week.

Teaching unions said the budget’s £100m more for education would go some way to repairing the damage done to the sector, but emphasised that the money had to go directly to schools.

School leaders’ union NAHT Cymru’s Laura Doel said: “We cannot underestimate the scale of the funding crisis facing schools, but this news, coupled with the in-year investment announced for education last week, will go some way to repairing the damage.”