THE Welsh Government's draft budget for the 2018-2019 financial year, including proposed new tax rates, have been met with a mixed reaction.

The draft financial plans were unveiled by finance secretary Mark Drakeford earlier this week and included an extra £450 million for the NHS over the next two years, an additional £10 million to tackle homelessness and plans to borrow £375 million over the next three years.

The budget was developed following negotiations between Labour and Plaid Cymru, through which Plaid agreed to back the budget for the next two years in exchange for some concessions towards its manifesto commitments.

But Monmouth AM and the Welsh Conservatives' shadow finance minister Nick Ramsay said Plaid had "sold the country short" through the deal."

“This is the latest in a long line of sadly predictable backroom deals between the nationalists and the Labour Party, and further evidence that a vote for Plaid is a vote for Labour," he said.

“Both parties have broken a number of election pledges to make this happen, and the budget makes no mention of Labour’s famous commitments on public sector pay or tuition fees.

“Nor does it address years of underfunding of the Welsh NHS."

But his Plaid counterpart Adam Price said the budget as a whole had been developed by Labour, and said the party "will have to answer to the people of Wales as to why it is failing to deliver on its manifesto commitments such as lifting the pay cap and stopping the rise in tuition fees".

Meanwhile the proposed new tax rates for Wales, which will include an increase in the property value threshold at which homebuyers have to pay Land Transaction Tax, which will replace Stamp Duty, from £125,000 to £150,000, have been met with a cautious welcome.

Director of the CBI (Confederation of British Industry) Wales Ian Price said the proposals "signal a more progressive tone to devolved taxation".

"Devolved taxes can be a useful addition to Wales’ toolbox," he said.

"But taxes aren’t the only tools that can be deployed."

And policy manager at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors in Wales David Morgan called the devolution of property taxation "a significant milestone for Wales".