Extra cash for Wales’ railways ‘top priority’ for Welsh Secretary after HS2 row

Wales’ rail settlement is “not good enough”, Jo Stevens has said, as she insisted she would fight for as much cash to fix the situation as possible.

The Welsh Secretary could not reveal how much Wales will get to invest in its trains, but said she was making representations to the Treasury for “sustainable funding”.

Ms Stevens’s appearance at the Commons’ Welsh Affairs Committee came after Eluned Morgan, the First Minister of Wales, told the BBC the UK Government had recognised Wales has been “hard done by” when it comes to rail.

Welsh politicians have complained that the country has lost out over the HS2 project, for which Wales received no additional money.

Consequential funding

The high speed rail project is classified as an England and Wales project, meaning the latter country loses out on consequential funding, which Plaid Cymru has estimated would be worth around £4 billion.

By contrast, Scotland and Northern Ireland are receiving extra funding as a result of HS2.

Speaking at the Welsh Affairs Committee for the first time since taking up her role as Secretary of State, Ms Stevens said she wanted to be “perfectly frank” about Wales’ rail settlement.

“It’s not good enough, and that is a direct consequence I’m afraid of the last 14 years of underfunding by prior governments, and that is why I am determined to change that. I can’t change the past. I hope that that I can change the future,” she told MPs.

Ms Stevens said she had been working with the Welsh Government’s transport minister Ken Skates, and the Department for Transport in Westminster, and had “agreed a direction of travel” which she hoped would “deliver new rail investment for Wales”.

Blueprint

Three key points had underpinned these discussions, she said – recognition that Wales had not received a fair share of funding in the past, that there is already a “really good blueprint” for which investments to prioritise, and that the UK and Welsh governments needed to work together.

A letter from Ms Stevens and Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander to the Welsh Government admitted “railways in Wales have seen low levels of enhancement spending in recent years, particularly in the context of major investments such as HS2”.

The UK Government will prioritise projects proposed by the Wales Rail Board, the letter said, including upgrading the railway in south-east Wales and building new stations between Cardiff and the Severn tunnel, as well as upgrades to the North Wales mainline and to connections between Wrexham and Liverpool in the north.

Speaking at the committee Ms Stevens stressed the Government “cannot fix this overnight”, adding: “It has gone on for a long time, and the legacy of under investment is going to take time to resolve, but I am clear, both governments are clear, that we have got to break this cycle of underinvestment that had been a political strategy.”

Rail infrastructure funding

When asked by Plaid Cymru’s Ben Lake (Ceredigion Preseli) if HS2 should be reclassified as an England-only infrastructure project, Ms Stevens signalled this was not an approach the Government would take.

“I want us to have a sustainable pot of rail infrastructure funding for Wales, and I think we need to stop deriving the future of railing Wales from HS2 alone,” she replied.

The Welsh Secretary could not give a timeline for when the funding would be set out, or how much it might be, as this will be subject to negotiation as part of the Government’s spending review later this year.

Ms Stevens insisted she was on the “side” of the Welsh travelling public, and added: “I just want the committee to be reassured that this is top on my shopping list for the spending review.”

Welsh First minister Baroness Morgan had earlier said she hopes the amount on offer will be “significant”.

“For the first time they’re recognising ‘you’ve been hard done by’,” she said of the UK Government.

Plaid’s Llyr Gruffydd MS argued the First Minister had misrepresented the letter she had received from UK ministers.

“If Labour were serious about giving Wales fair play, then they would give us the full £4 billion we are owed, just as they said they would,” the Senedd member added.

But a Labour source said: “We recognise that Wales has suffered chronic underinvestment under successive Conservative governments, including through HS2. We cannot fix that inherited injustice.

“But we can and will fight for a funded pipeline of future rail projects across Wales for the first time in decades.”

Scraps

Welsh Conservative Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Transport and Infrastructure, Peter Fox said:“Before the election, the Welsh Labour Government was vocal in calling for fair HS2 consequentials to come to Wales. Yet now, with a Labour Government in Westminster, the First Minister seems all too willing to accept whatever scraps her counterparts in London throw our way.

“Jo Stevens, when she was Shadow Secretary of State for Wales, had called for billions of pounds to come to Wales. Now she is in Government, she remains tight lipped.

“We were promised two governments working in partnership to deliver what is best for Wales. Instead, we’ve had broken promise after broken promise. The Welsh Conservatives have consistently called for fair HS2 funding to develop a modern, sustainable rail network that drives economic growth for all of Wales.”

Welsh Liberal Democrat Westminster Spokesperson David Chadwick MP said:“More than warm words are needed to fix Welsh railways.

“This statement doesn’t commit to any specific extra funding and doesn’t commit to the full devolution of our railways, which is what is needed to stop scandals like that around HS2 consequential funding from happening again.

“The letter also doesn’t mention Mid or West Wales at all. Rural areas are too often neglected by Labour. While billions of pounds are being spent on the South Wales Metro, rail services in rural parts of Wales like the Heart of Wales Line and Cambrian Line are being cut.

“The Welsh Liberal Democrats will continue to fight for Wales to receive the funding it deserves for rail, including HS2 consequentials in full.”