The Chancellor has announced a record £21 billion budget for the Welsh Government in 2025/26.

This is the largest settlement in real terms in the history of devolution, according to Welsh Labour.

The budget includes a £1.7 billion top-up through the Barnett formula, with £1.5 billion for day-to-day spending and £250 million for capital investment.

Secretary of State for Wales, Jo Stevens, said: “This budget has delivered for Wales for the first time in a generation.

“The biggest settlement since devolution will provide a record boost to spending for the Welsh Government to support public services like the NHS while thousands of working people across Wales will benefit from today’s increases to their wages.”

The National Living Wage will increase from £11.44 to £12.21 an hour from April 2025, a 6.7 per cent increase worth £1,400 a year for a full-time worker.

The National Minimum Wage for 18 to 20-year-olds will also see a record rise from £8.60 to £10 an hour.

The Chancellor confirmed that National Insurance Contributions thresholds will be unfrozen from 2028-29 onwards, and fuel duty for another year, with the temporary 5p cut extended to March 22, 2026.

The budget includes measures designed to support pubs and smaller brewers in Wales, with the UK Government cutting duty on qualifying draught products by 1p.

However the Budget has drawn criticism too. Heather Ferguson, head of policy at Age Cymru, said: "Older people in Wales have been left out in the cold after the UK Budget. 

"We’re hugely disappointed by the Chancellor’s lack of mitigating measures or financial support for the thousands of older people in Wales who will no longer receive the Winter Fuel Payment." 

She added: "We welcome the extra funding for the Household Support Fund and look forward to seeing how this translates in support for older people in Wales."

Leader of the Welsh Conservatives, Andrew RT Davies MS said: “Labour’s smash and grab Budget will have a devastating impact in Wales.

“This Budget is built on the back of keeping pensioners cold this winter, and the National Insurance rise will be an incredibly destructive jobs tax for Wales’ economy which is already struggling after decades of Labour rule.

“While extra money for our health service is always welcome, it must be ringfenced for cutting NHS waiting lists. But the lack of money for social care reform is a worrying omission from this Budget, and is in effect kicking tough choices into the long grass.

Welsh Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader David Chadwick MP said: “This budget fails to offer an ambitious vision for Wales that would mark a long-term investment in its future, it punishes small businesses and will be a disaster for family farms. 

“Labour has failed to deliver the billions owed to Wales from HS2, yet constituents like mine are facing deep cuts in their rail services.

“Meanwhile, the Chancellor has chosen to increase taxation for the small businesses that are the lifeblood of the Welsh economy instead of taking aim at the enormous profits of the banks, oil and gas giants and big tech."

The Budget also announced a package of measures that disincentivise activities that cause ill health, by renewing the tobacco duty escalator which increases all tobacco duty rates by RPI+2 per cent plus an above escalator increase to hand rolling tobacco (totalling RPI+12 per cent).