Diolch yn fawr, Lywydd, am y cyfle i wneud datganiad ar gyllideb ddrafft Llywodraeth Cymru ar gyfer 2017-18. Rwyf wedi gosod y gyllideb o flaen y Cynulliad y prynhawn yma ar gyfer proses ymgynghori a chraffu.

Rydym ni’n byw mewn cyfnod ansicr iawn. Ar ôl ystyried yn ofalus iawn dros yr haf, rwyf wedi penderfynu, cyn y ‘fiscal resetting’ y mae Canghellor y Trysorlys yn ei addo yn natganiad mis Tachwedd, mai dim ond cyllideb refeniw un flwyddyn mae’n bosib i ni ei gosod o flaen y Cynulliad. Mae Gweinidogion cyllid Llywodraeth yr Alban a Gweithrediaeth Gogledd Iwerddon wedi dod i gasgliad tebyg. Yn y cyd-destun anodd iawn hwn, fy nod oedd gosod cyllideb sy’n rhoi sefydlogrwydd i wasanaethau cyhoeddus allweddol dros y 18 mis nesaf. Ond mae hi hefyd yn gyllideb ag uchelgais, yn gyllideb sy’n gwneud cynnydd yn y rhaglen lywodraethu a’n haddewidion i bobl Cymru.

Mae’r gyllideb sydd o’ch blaen heddiw, Lywydd, hefyd wedi ei datblygu yn sgil cytundeb rhwng y Llywodraeth a Phlaid Cymru. Hoffwn i ddiolch i Adam Price a’i dîm ef am y trafodaethau gofalus, adeiladol a manwl sy’n sylfaen i’n cytundeb. Mae’n darparu ar gyfer pecyn o ymrwymiadau gwario ychwanegol, yn ogystal â mesurau anghyllidol. Mae’r rhain i’w gweld yn y dogfennau cyllideb sydd ar gael i Aelodau. Rydym ni hefyd wedi cytuno ar raglen waith ar gyfer y pwyllgor cyswllt cyllid am y 12 mis nesaf, ac rwy’n edrych ymlaen i ddechrau trafod.

Llywydd, let me say a little more about the context in which this budget has been created. Since 2010-11, we have experienced successive cuts to the Welsh budget. By the end of the decade, our overall budget will have been reduced by 9 per cent in real terms—equivalent to almost £1.5 billion less for vital public services here in Wales. And, of course, I again restate today the urgent macroeconomic case for the abandonment of the self-defeating policies of austerity. It is because of those policies that there remain threats of further cuts to come, as the UK Government has yet to announce how it will find the £3.5 billion of departmental reductions announced in the March budget. This alone could mean another £150 million cut for services in Wales. As the Institute for Fiscal Studies recently concluded, Wales is looking at an extraordinary 11 or more years of retrenchment in public service spending.

Now, despite this, and the immediate impacts of the EU referendum on Wales, the budget before Members today will: invest an additional £240 million in the Welsh NHS to meet the ongoing growth in demand and costs of services; it will secure £111 million for apprenticeships and traineeships as part of our commitment to invest in skills and jobs in Wales, including £88.3 million to create 100,000 all-age apprenticeships; it will deliver a £100 million tax cut for small businesses; provide the best local government funding settlement in years; confirm our investment in the intermediate care fund; raise school standards with a £20 million investment next year; safeguard and increase funding for the pupil deprivation grant; take forward work on the UK’s most generous childcare offer for working parents. And, over and above the £240 million just identified, we will also provide £16 million next year for the NHS to establish a new treatment fund, which will make new and innovative treatments for life-changing and life-threatening diseases available to all those who need them in Wales. We will also allocate £4.5 million to raise the capital limit so people can keep more of their life savings when entering residential care, as promised in my party’s manifesto.

Our agreement with Plaid Cymru will see further additional investments for health services—£1 million for end-of-life care services, £1 million for eating disorders and transgender services, and £7 million over and above that already in the budget for additional investment in the training of extra healthcare professionals.

Llywydd, while it has only proved prudent to lay a one-year revenue budget, I have judged it possible to set out a four-year capital plan. Allocating the majority of the available capital will provide confidence and assurance to the construction sector, businesses and investors, and support the best decision making. We will provide over £1.3 billion over the next four years to deliver an extra 20,000 affordable homes here in Wales in line with our manifesto commitment. We will invest more than £500 million of conventional capital in our £2 billion twenty-first century schools programme, and use new innovative finance models to take forward the development of a new specialist Velindre Cancer Centre and the dualling of the A465.

Capital funding has been set aside in reserves to deliver the new M4 relief road by 2021, subject to the outcome of the public inquiry next year. There is almost £370 million in the capital budget over the next four years to deliver our ambitious plans for the south Wales metro, and we are investing to advance proposals for a metro for north Wales as well. Fifteen million pounds in the health capital programme for 2017-18 will be invested in improving diagnostics, as reflected in our budget agreement with Plaid Cymru.

Llywydd, this statement has focused on budget plans for the future, but we also know that there are some real pressures in the current financial year in some of our core services. I expect to be able to recognise some of those in-year pressures. Our response to those issues, however, will need to be balanced with what the Chancellor’s autumn statement will mean for Wales. I will, of course, update Members about these plans as they develop.

So it is, Llywydd, that this is a budget for stability and ambition. It invests for today and it prepares for tomorrow. It will help us to take forward our NHS, to raise school standards, to implement the biggest education reform package Wales has seen since the 1940s, and it will ensure that our local government partners can go on providing their essential services. It is also, Llywydd, a budget for ambition, investing in Wales, in vital new infrastructure, in housing, in transport, in jobs and in our future prosperity. It is a budget that takes Wales forward.