Wales

The new Plaid Cymru government faces a difficult fiscal outlook – and the need to find common ground with other parties.

IFS analysis, manifesto responses and more of the Welsh election of 2026.

Join us at this event as experts discuss the current fiscal landscape and analyse the proposals put forward by Wales’s political parties.

This comment compares the political parties’ main proposals for schools in Wales at the upcoming 2026 Welsh elections.

A joint webinar with the Welsh Election Study and the Institute for Fiscal Studies on the Welsh party manifestos and spending plans.

While their visions differ, all parties’ plans would add to the fiscal challenges facing the next Welsh Government – albeit to very different extents

A look at Welsh funding, tax powers, public services and the hard fiscal trade-offs facing whoever forms the next government.

A manifesto with more support for families with children, but important question marks over how to fund its giveaways.

A manifesto with a vision for a bigger state but no detail on how to pay for it.

Wales’s employment rate is falling further behind the rest of the UK, posing a challenge for the next Welsh Government

A manifesto with more spending for priorities, but which also increases the chance of cuts to some other areas.

English hospital services are in a relatively poor state - yet still look substantially better on many measures than those in Scotland and Wales

Wales leads on council tax revaluation – but has followed England on a range of ill-advised tax policy changes

Welsh health and education systems are underperforming – with cuts to spending on some public services likely post-election.

Reform UK's Welsh manifesto echoes Conservative proposals while leaving the spending cuts needed to fund its tax ambitions unspecified.

A tax-cutting manifesto lacking a credible plan for the accompanying spending cuts.

Wales receives relatively more funding than it should according to available needs assessments – but these are nearly 20 years old and need updating.

An explanation of the 'Barnett formula' used in funding arrangements for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Politicians in Holyrood and Cardiff Bay make decisions on some but not all public policies, taxes and areas of public spending.

What are block grant adjustments and how are they calculated?