Chancellor should provide Wales with £5b share of HS2 project, says Welsh Govt
The Welsh Government has called on the Chancellor to provide Wales with its £5 billion share of HS2 funding as the “England-only project does not benefit Wales”.
Tomorrow, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt will present his Spring Budget to Parliament.
Minister for Finance and Local Government, Rebecca Evans said the Budget should include a commitment to the completion of the electrification of the rail network between Cardiff and Swansea, including the Vale of Glamorgan lines.
She added: “The delay to the only section of the HS2 project that would have increased connectivity with Wales re-affirms that this is an England-only project and does not benefit Wales.
“The UK Government must commit to review the categorisation of this £100 billion investment as an England and Wales project and provide the Welsh Government with its £5 billion share of consequential funding.”
The Welsh government also called on the Chancellor to ensure the spring Budget protects ‘those hit hardest’ by the cost-of-living crisis.
Although the Chancellor has announced an end to the ‘prepayment penalty’, the Welsh Government has urged him to ‘go further’ and seek to abolish standing charges on pre-payment meters, as well as increasing Local Housing Allowance rates and funding for Discretionary Housing Payments.
One-off payment
Rebecca Evans said an additional one-off payment for all people on means tested benefits should be provided and changes should be made to the Universal Credit deduction policy, to “ease pressures on the most financially vulnerable households.”
Minister for Finance and Local Government said: “The economic situation in the UK continues to be very challenging.
“The UK Government needs to do more to mitigate the deteriorating financial position of households as a result of the continuing cost of living crisis, the impact of which is falling disproportionately on disabled people, Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic groups, women, carers, and those with young children.”
With the cost of energy price support now significantly less than anticipated, Rebecca Evans said the Chancellor should maintain the Energy Price Guarantee at £2,500 from April and review the Windfall Tax so energy production companies are not able to retain so much of their record profits.
The minster for finance also said the UK Government should invest in “innovative programmes which help minimise our reliance on fossil fuels and contribute towards our Net Zero ambitions”.
She added: “It should also consider investment in opportunities which could contribute to economic growth and Net Zero through the research and development sector, such as semiconductors and radio-diagnostic and radio-medicines, which could also help reduce NHS waiting times.”
Due to planned strike action within the Senedd Commission and Civil Service, the Welsh Government will provide a statement setting out the implications of the Budget for Wales on Thursday 16 March rather than on the day of the Budget.
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HS2 was, is and will be an elitist vanity project. Joe and Jane Public will never be able to routinely afford to travel on it. Public sector people may get on it if their bosses cough up the warrants, captains of industry and commerce will have expense fuelled trips and rich tourists will pay the premium prices. Big bloody joke at our expense.
Cymru pays for one new nuclear sub, so what should we name it…FMS …… ?
How about we stop asking for English crumbs while they steal our Gold without any sort of objections. Welsh government are Pathetic!
And what would TfW do with it? They have proved themselves incapable of running a railway since taking over from Arriva: Classes 170 (not passed on lines they were bought for), 230 (ex-London Underground, years late and now dead in the water), 769 (for the Valley lines converted at not inconsiderable expense from elderly Bedford-London electric units – just plain unreliable), 197 (hard seats & too few toilets) and a rumour that tri-modal units (Class 231) won’t be able to get up certain valleys on diesel power alone if full. Add the shambles of buying Mark 4 coaches (with restaurant… Read more »
Due Diligence in all things lacking in Cymru. One thing we have in common with Engand…a South East that expects the lion’s share…
What will the response to this by the Tories – as usual nothing. They just don’t care and care even less about what the Senedd wants or even whether it exists or not. The Senedd will only have a true international voice when it becomes the parliament of an independent country.
How many hundreds of years have we been asking, not for special treatment, but only our fair share, and we have been given nothing, it has always been, and as long as we remain in the UK , take, take, take, while the country slips further behind the UK GDP average, and are passed by countries we once were ahead of by twice the amount.
Seeing the English Tory party cynically put HS2 as an England & Wales infrastructure build even though a hundred miles or so from our boarder robbing our Senedd of billions. And how tretcherous so-called WelshNot Secretary David TC Davies stated that Wales “should not receive one penny in HS2 consequential”, what our FM Mark Drakefird & Welsh Labour should be doing is asking their London puppetmaster Keir Starmer what’s UK Labour going to do about it seeing a would-be General Election is over a year away and it’s a distinct possibility that he & UK Labour will be the next… Read more »