Here are 3 ways that the current system screws over Wales. If politicians are not talking about these issues, they are not serious about fixing Wales' problems. ---------- 1. The Welsh Gov has less borrowing powers than a council. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿Wales can only borrow £150m a year (and £1bn in total). That is the equivalent of just 0.57% of our budget. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿Scotland can borrow £450m a year (and £3bn in total). This makes it really hard for Wales to make big investments like building hospitals and schools unless we use super expensive funding models like PFI. The worst thing is, Scotland's borrowing rates have increased with inflation every year since 2016 whereas Wales' have been frozen! ---------- 2. Wales’ can’t even spend its own money If Wales makes good financial decisions and has money left at the end of the year, it is only allowed to carry over a very small amount. The total the Welsh Government can have in the reserve is £350m. While that might sound like a lot, it really isn’t in a government context. The Welsh Government’s budget is £27bn. This means that the Welsh reserve is just 1.35% of its budget. And that £350m isn’t per year, that is the total it can carry. This means that if the Welsh Government reserve is full, then any money that isn’t spent is just taken back by the Treasury in Westminster. What makes this system even worse is that the UK Treasury has imposed limits on how much of its own reserves Wales can even use! Of the £350m Wales can only access £175m a year. Scotland has a reserve of £700m AND it has no limit on how much of that it can spend. Plus yet again, Scotland’s was linked to inflation whereas Wales’ wasn’t. There is simply no justification for Wales being treated differently to Scotland. The UK Government isn’t able to get away with treating Scotland like Wales because the Scots wouldn’t stand for it. ---------- 3. Rail Because rail is devolved in Scotland, when the UK Government spends money in England on rail, Scotland gets extra cash. Scotland gets billions of pounds in extra funding because of HS2 (which is only in England). But because rail isn’t devolved to Wales, the Treasury can class HS2 as an “England and Wales project” meaning Wales gets nothing. It is worse than that. Because HS2 is counted as a Welsh project, it stops Wales getting extra money in the future because on the spreadsheet it looks like Wales has already had investment (even though it all went to England). ---------- You could have the best politicians in the world in Cardiff Bay but they still couldn’t fix Wales’ problems because the tools at their disposal are not fit for purpose. The challenges Wales faces are not because of immigrants, they are because the system of funding we have is set up so that we can’t fail to fail.