School repairs in Plaid first minister's £294m spending plans for Wales

Repairs and upgrades to schools worth £40m have been included in spending plans from Wales' Plaid Cymru government.

Finance Minister Elin Jones has outlined how she will allocate £294m to fund her party's policies - the first changes to the Welsh government budget since Plaid won May's Senedd election.

The government said the £40m would tackle a "growing maintenance backlog" and "prevent further deterioration" in school buildings. Another £10m is included for secondary school canteens so free meals can be offered to more pupils.

Plaid Cymru faces its first big test when a vote is held to approve the changes on 14 July.

The money is coming from a combination of extra cash from the UK government and funding left unspent by the previous Welsh Labour administration.

The single biggest item is a cash injection of £100m for the NHS to bring down waiting times.

Jones said Plaid had "inherited significant pressures" in public services.

She added: "This supplementary budget concentrates resources on our clearest priorities: cutting NHS waiting times, expanding childcare, extending free school meals, and easing cost-of-living pressures for families."

The budget includes £55m for childcare – a major part of Plaid Cymru's Senedd election campaign.

But £25m of that will meet "existing demand" for three and four-year-olds. Another £20m will go towards expanding care to more two-year-olds.

Plaid has not made any cuts to the budget it agreed in opposition with the last Labour government.

After these changes, it still has £247m of day-to-day spending which it has not allocated.

That money could be useful if ministers need to strike a deal with another party to get the supplementary budget approved.

The Welsh government has extra money as a consequence of money spent by the UK government, used to pay off the debts of English councils built up through supporting young people with special educational needs and disabilities.

A supplementary budget is used by a government to make in-year changes to its current spending plans.

In opposition Plaid had said it would bring one forward within its first 100 days if it won the Senedd election.

The current budget for 2026-27 was passed in January after Plaid did a deal with the then Labour-run Welsh government.

The independent think tank the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has warned that the NHS could face real-term cuts unless all the extra available day-to-day funding is allocated to the health service.

Plaid is six seats short of a majority so it will need to strike a deal for its plans to pass a vote in the 96-member Senedd.

In an interview with BBC Radio Wales Breakfast, First Minister Rhun ap Iorwerth said he did not need the same kind of discussions that would happen with a full annual budget, usually passed in the winter.

He said: "It's not like a budget round where you have discussions and talks with other parties in the same way."

"Clearly what we all need to do is explain publicly and to other parties, and to the Finance Committee in the Senate, which will be scrutinising this, why it is that we are putting these slight changes in place."

Labour sources said the remarks were very "casual" and said they imagined they would not have gone down well with party leader, Ken Skates, whose votes Plaid may need.

Huw Thomas, Welsh Labour's finance spokesman, said: "What stands out in this supplementary budget is not what's included, but what's missing.

"Despite every Welsh council, teaching unions, and schools calling for it, Plaid Cymru have failed to commit any of the over £300m that's available for children with additional learning needs."

Reform Wales' finance spokesman, Cai Parry-Jones, said: "The people of Wales want to see a budget that puts Wales first.

"Yet this budget takes money from children with additional learning needs while continuing to send taxpayers' money abroad."

His party has criticised schemes where the Welsh government spend money internationally, including Wales taking part in tree-planting schemes in Africa.

Sam Rowlands, of the Conservatives, said: "Plaid Cymru have not set aside a penny for hardworking small business owners in Wales who face higher business rates than in England, and farmers too seem to have been ignored.

"This budget offers more of the same tired approach that we saw under Labour. What we need is a budget that cuts taxes and gets the Welsh economy moving."