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Barnett formula

According to the Daily Telegraph today, Gordon Brown has ordered a review of the Barnett formula, which allocates public funding across the UK.

The formula is very simple - for every pound the UK government distributes for spending around the country, 85 pence goes to England, 10 pence goes to Scotland and 5 pence to Wales and is suppose to reflect the relative population of each part of the UK.

For a detailed explanation, see the Treasury paper on Barnett.

As Lord Barnett himslef has agreed, this review is long overdue but I would suggest that this is more to do with the growing concerns of middle class voters in many parts of England as opposed to coming up with a fairer system that reflects the actual needs of each region of the UK, including Wales.

Of course, the outcome for Wales all depends on the methodology recommended for allocatting future funding and rather than gaining more money for Wales, we could actually lose out to some of the the poorer English regions such as the North East of England.

Comments

dotcommentator said…
It's rather depressing that we in Wales are reduced to debating whether we'd be better off squeezing money out of the Treasury with Barnett or with a potential Barnett Mark II. If our economy were in a decent shape we'd be able to make our point much more forcefully.
March 05, 2008 1:16 pm
Anonymous said…
We shouldn't be afraid of a review of the Barnett formula and if it doesn't come out in our favour then maybe silly stunts like free prescriptions and free car parking will finally be off the agenda and it will have to focus the minds of our elected representatives on economic matters such as a Bank of Wales or a Stock Exchange.
March 05, 2008 2:35 pm
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