Extra £610m for NHS in new spending plan – Western Mail 

Western Mail front page this morning – summarised

NHS news leads the front page of the Welsh newspaper Western Mail. 

1. The Welsh Government has published its spending plans for the next financial year, promising more money to every single government department compared to last year. The spending plan, known as the draft budget, lays out how ministers plan to distribute the £26bn spending Welsh Government is responsible for.

   All departments including health, education and rural affairs, will receive increases in both revenue and capital funding with the Welsh Government pledging it will allow “substantial investments in the school estate, NHS infrastructure, housing and public transport”. Capital expenditures are typically one-time large costs, like building new schools or hospitals, while revenue is the ongoing operating expenses.

2. The 50 fastest-growing firms in Wales can be revealed. The indigenous companies making the 25th annual list of the Wales Fast Growth 50 – a project devised by Professor Dylan Jones-Evans – collectively generated revenues of £880m in 2022.

   Over three years they grew by an average of 208% – a record for the Wales Fast Growth 50 index. And for the first time in 25 years, all 50 firms have grown by more than 100% to make the 2023 list.