Coronavirus aid should reflect Wales' older population, says minister

Emergency aid to tackle coronavirus should be based on the demands of Wales' older population, the Welsh Government's finance minister has said.

It follows a meeting Rebecca Evans held with UK Chief Secretary to the Treasury Stephen Barclay ahead of the budget.

She also said the number of Welsh manufacturing jobs means many people will not be able to work from home.

The budget, on Wednesday, is expected to be dominated by dealing with the immense challenges of the outbreak.

Ms Evans joined her counterparts from the UK's other devolved governments in the meeting with Mr Barclay, in Westminster, on Tuesday.

After the talks, she told BBC Wales she looked forward to learning what steps to deal with coronavirus were being introduced by Chancellor Rishi Sunak in his first budget.

"We are working really well across governments," she said. "This is a real challenge but it is an issue we are prepared for.

"We are ready for this and it is important that funding is based on need.

"We have a very large proportion of older people in Wales, more manufacturing jobs in Wales and all of that needs to be taken into consideration."

The minister said she hoped there would be measures to give businesses longer to pay taxes as consequence of coronavirus and ensure swift payments for those claiming Universal Credit.

She also stressed the need for extra UK government funding to help communities hit by the recent floods.

Mr Sunak has insisted UK ministers will take "whatever action is required" to deal with the Covid-19 outbreak.

Meanwhile the Treasury has confirmed the broadcaster S4C will be allowed to claim back VAT on costs incurred from 2021 - putting it back on the same tax footing as ITN (Independent Television News) and the BBC.

S4C's tax status was changed in 2019, requiring it to pay VAT on costs.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport at the time agreed to foot the bill in Westminster until the rules were changed so that S4C would again be allowed to recover its VAT payments.

The Wales Office estimates that, had S4C been required to foot the bill itself, it would have cost S4C up to £15m a year - and S4C has welcomed the announcement saying it would have amounted to a 20% cut in its budget.