THE WELSH GOVERNMENT has unveiled its Draft Budget for 2025-26, allocating £443.9m to address housing pressures and more than £100m in additional revenue and capital funding for education.

Supporting Housing and Education

Finance Cabinet Secretary Mark Drakeford announced key allocations, including £219.6m for homelessness support and prevention, £14.3m to assist children with Additional Learning Needs, and extra resources for literacy, numeracy, and the Education Maintenance Allowance.

The budget also commits £93.5m to maintain universal free school meals in primary schools, a 4.3% increase in the local government settlement to sustain essential services like schools and social care, and £57m in financial transactions capital to extend the Help to Buy Wales scheme for another 18 months.

Capital Investment and Social Housing

With more than £3bn in capital unlocked, the Welsh Government has prioritized investment across departments. Highlights include £81m in extra funding for the Social Housing Grant and Transitional Accommodation Capital Programmes to deliver more social housing and continued investment in the £2.3bn Sustainable Communities for Learning programme to refurbish and rebuild schools and colleges.

First Minister’s Vision

First Minister Eluned Morgan emphasized the focus on delivering for Welsh communities:
“This Draft Budget supports the issues important to you. It reflects what I’ve heard in our cities and rural communities: the need for better healthcare, housing, jobs, and opportunities. Today’s announcement ensures continued delivery of the services that matter most to the Welsh people.”

Reversing Austerity

Mark Drakeford underscored the transformative potential of the budget:
“This is a budget for a brighter tomorrow. By working in partnership with the UK Labour Government, we are undoing years of underfunding. This budget protects the most vulnerable in Wales and prioritizes investment in communities that need it most.”

The budget sets Wales on a renewed path to growth, ensuring public services and infrastructure can meet the needs of all citizens.

SPECSAVERS HAVERFORDWEST has achieved a gold award in the Greener Primary Care Wales Framework and Award Scheme, recognising its outstanding commitment to environmental sustainability and reducing its impact on the planet.

Launched in 2022 by the Primary Care Division of Public Health Wales, the framework supports GP practices, community pharmacies, primary care dental practices and optometry practices to adopt eco-friendly initiatives.

Specsavers Haverfordwest is among only a handful of optometry practices and Specsavers stores in Wales to achieve this award, having first joined the scheme in January 2024.

Over the past year, the practice has implemented a range of sustainability measures, from healthy lifestyle changes to carbon management, all aimed at contributing to the Welsh Government’s target of achieving net-zero carbon emissions.

Wayne Jones, retail director at Specsavers Haverfordwest, says: ‘We are delighted to be recognised for our commitment to sustainability. Climate change poses serious challenges to both individual and public health and we have a role to play in mitigating its impact.

‘Participating in the Greener Primary Care Wales Framework and Award Scheme reflects Specsavers’ dedication to reducing its carbon footprint and ensuring that its operations and services support a healthier future. We look forward to driving this forward at our new store.’

Specsavers Haverfordwest will relocate to a new premises in the Riverside Shopping Centre on 16 December. The new £1.2 million store will have 14 test rooms, including two audiology suites which will support the growing local demand for advanced eye and hearing care while helping to ease pressure on the NHS.

The store will be open seven days a week. To find out more information about Specsavers in Haverfordwest, request an appointment or browse the online store, visit www.specsavers.co.uk/stores/haverfordwest.

Additionally, to make eye health accessible to all, the store offers a Home Visits service for those unable to leave their homes unaccompanied due to disability or illness.

A ROAD near Haverfordwest was closed for a time on Wednesday (Dec 11) after a car collided with a bridge.

The incident occurred at 4:30am on Old Hakin Road.

Emergency services attended the scene to recover the vehicle, resulting in the temporary closure of the road.

A spokesperson for Dyfed-Powys Police said: “We received a report of a single-vehicle road traffic collision at 4:30am this morning. A blue Skoda collided with a bridge on Old Hakin Road, Haverfordwest.

“No injuries were reported. The road was closed for recovery of the vehicle.”

Motorists were advised to seek alternative routes while the recovery took place.

The road has since reopened.