Households in Wales will receive £100 energy payment, minister confirms

Eleanor Storey and Zoe Head-Thomas, Press Association

Households in Wales will receive a £100 energy payment to help with bills, the finance minister has confirmed.

The Chancellor announced the scheme in his Budget on Wednesday, telling MPs the devolved nations would receive “their share” of funding and urging them to offer the same relief.

The payment, to be paid directly to the bank accounts of households in council tax bands A to D at a cost of £2.6 billion, will “take the pressure off” in the coldest months, John Healey said.

Welsh finance minister Elin Jones confirmed on Wednesday afternoon that the Plaid Cymru-led government in Wales would also make the £100 payments to households.

She said: “The Welsh Government has been doing our own work on the cost-of-living measures that we could take to support families in Wales.

“We are in a position to confirm that we can make, as part of our cost-of-living package of support for families in Wales, that £100 payment to those homes within council tax bands A to D, and that payment will be made to people in Wales.”

The finance minister said the £100 commitment was “important” but added that it would be “insignificant” for some households.

Ms Jones added: “The allocation is a general allocation.

“It’s not targeted at those people who are most in need, and therefore an ability to provide support for those people who are most in need is one of the things that I would have wanted to see the Chancellor go further on today.”

The finance minister was critical of the Budget, describing it as “totally underwhelming” and a “real-terms cut dressed up as a windfall”.

Opportunity

She said: “There was an opportunity today for the UK Chancellor to have provided greater flexibility of funding for public services in Wales and throughout the UK.

“That wasn’t done to the extent to meet the inflationary pressures that are within our public services, and therefore our analysis is that we will continue to have for next year a real-terms cut in our public funding and our resource settlement.

“That will be very challenging for our NHS, for our schools, for transport in Wales.

“As I prepare the budget for the Welsh Government in a few weeks’ time, that will be very challenging and will be one of the more, well, the most difficult settlement that we’ve had since the pre-Covid era.”

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