WIREDGOV

Ahead of the 2015 Budget, we set out how the UK government has helped hard working people, businesses and local communities across Wales.

Helping with the cost of living:

• Since 2010 earnings in Wales have increased faster than the UK average and are currently increasing at twice the rate of inflation.

• More than 158,000 people have been taken out of tax altogether in Wales since 2010.

• Our policies to boost living standards are working right across Wales with every region of Wales seeing a rise in incomes well above the average for the UK as a whole over the last year.

• The increase in the National Minimum Wage will mean the lowest paid workers in Wales will enjoy the biggest cash increase in their take home pay since 2008.

• Taken decisive action to ban exclusivity in zero hours contracts to help protect the rights of Welsh workers.

Supporting Welsh businesses:

• Some 740 smaller businesses in Wales are currently benefitting from loans from the British Business Bank, supporting more than £63 million of finance.

• We have provided more than 700 loans worth almost £4.5 million to help new businesses start up in Wales.

• Employers of around 22,000 apprentices in Wales could benefit from the abolition of National Insurance Contributions.

• Welsh businesses will benefit from the further one per cent cut in the main rate of corporation tax from April 2015 to 20%. The UK will have the joint lowest rate of corporation tax in the G20.

Employment:

• Since 2010, 41,000 more people are in work in Wales – with the security of a pay packet to provide for themselves and their families.

• The number of people claiming job seekers allowance has fallen for 24 consecutive months and is at the lowest level for over six years.

• Youth unemployment in Wales has plummeted by 46% since the election.

• Since the first three months in 2010, 100,000 more private sector jobs in Wales have been created.

Improving infrastructure:

• Invested in a £212 million new prison in Wrexham which will create around 1,000 jobs and a £23 million boost to the local and national economy once up and running.

• We have worked with the mobile phone industry to strike a deal to guarantee voice and text coverage from each operator across 90 per cent of Wales and the rest of the UK by 2017.

• We have provided the Welsh Government with £69million to deliver superfast broadband in Wales.

• Secured investment in rail infrastructure that will see the full electrification package across the Great Western main line and the Valley – the first electrified railway in Wales.

• The UK Government will start closer discussions with Swansea Tidal Power which has the potential to be a massive boost to the Welsh economy and help secure Wales’s energy future.

• Facilitating new investment in the proposed nuclear development at Wylfa on Anglesey which has the potential to create 6,000 construction jobs in Wales and countless supply chain opportunities for local firms.