A 'CAREFUL and cautious approach' is needed in lifting the coronavirus lockdown restrictions - and Wales is keen to stick with whatever proposals are put forward for England, due to the issue of people living on the border, a Welsh Government minister said.

Finance minister Rebecca Evans told the daily Welsh Government coronavirus briefing that she and colleagues will be "exploring whether we can lend our support" to plans to ease the lockdown, which Prime Minister Boris Johnson has indicated he will lay out at the weekend.

"We're keen to move as closely as we can with England at the moment because in Wales we have so many people living on the Wales-England border and it's important we move in step when we can.

"What I expect to see from the prime minister at the weekend is a careful and cautious approach to lifting the lockdown."

She added that it would be difficult to move ahead on a different basis to other UK nations, but "ultimately we have to be guided by the science."

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Ms Evans unveiled a £26m support package for charities, with £10,000 grants being awarded to small charities "to help with the financial pressure they are facing".

There will also, she said, be a fund to bring forward development land now in public ownership, "to build social housing that we will be an important part of our recovery".

She also said she is determined to see the £500 award to social care staff in Wales, announced last week, paid in full, and not clawed back in part through tax.

"I do not think that would be right or fair," she said.

Addressing the issue of future funding for the UK and devolved governments, and whether a further period of austerity might be coming, Ms Evans said people "should be rightly concerned at what is coming next".

"We cannot be sure what the (UK Government's) Comprehensive Spending Review later this year will entail," she said.

"It is very difficult to predict the kind of funding we will have.

"From a Welsh Government perspective that is a concern (and) of course individuals and businesses will be experiencing the same kinds of uncertainties, and these will be with us for some time."