First Minister rules out M4 relief road funding

Twm Owen, Local Democracy Reporter

There is no prospect of the £14 billion announced for Welsh rail improvements being diverted to an M4 relief road, the first minister has said.

Eluned Morgan was speaking in Newport where she launched Welsh Labour’s campaign for the Senedd election and unveiled the party’s five key pledges and promised £4bn for three new hospitals, including a rebuild of the University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff, should Labour lead the next Welsh Government.

The Welsh Labour leader also said it was a “fact not a grievance” Wales has been “shortchanged” on investment in railways and described the £14bn promised by Prime Minister Keir Starmer on a recent visit as “not a ceiling, it’s the floor”.

But speaking to reporters Ms Morgan ruled out any of the £14bn, most of which is unallocated and only promised as an indication of future support, being used towards an M4 relief road.

The Labour leader of Newport City Council, Dimitri Batrouni, who was among council leaders and Senedd candidates in attendance at Newport Market for the campaign launch, had at the authority’s most recent meeting said the growing city would need a relief road, among other transport improvements.

The Welsh Government had cancelled plans for a relief road in 2019 and instead promised investment in alternatives including rail but funding for five new stations in and around the city was only secured in last summer’s UK Government spending review.

Asked if there was any prospect of a relief road being built Ms Morgan said: “Those train stations, near Newport allowing people to commute to Cardiff, will take the pressure off the M4. That will be transformational. We need to just get on with it.

“I’m hoping people, particularly local people from Newport, commuting to Cardiff, and surrounding areas will actually get on the train it will be faster, it will be more green, it will be more convenient and that will take the pressure of the M4 and therefore we won’t need to see it (the relief road).”

She also ruled out any possibility of diverting any of the £14bn, promised by the PM, to a relief road and said: “No. That money is for rail, let’s be absolutely clear about that. What I want to see is recognition that actually the world is changing. The way we drive cars will be changing, there will be autonomous vehicles, all kinds of changes. This is about looking to the future recognising that today is very, very different from what tomorrow will look like.”

Cllr Batrouni had, at a council meeting, when questioned on proposed changes to the city’s transport infrastructure based on plans produced as alternatives when the relief road was scrapped, said he would like to see a relief road built.

“Newport is growing so fast that we need the train stations, the cycle improvements, the bus improvements and we’ll need some sort of relief road,” he said. “Because if the population is growing, it doesn’t take a genius to work out we’ll have more people who need to move around.”

Opinion polls

Opinion polls suggest Welsh Labour, which has led every government since the establishment of devolution in 1999, could lose its grip on power in Cardiff Bay with Plaid Cymru or Reform UK likely to be the biggest party in the new expanded Senedd.

During her speech to invited party supporters Ms Morgan said her message to competitors is “slogans are easy, running Wales is hard”.

Labour launched five pledges; tackling the cost of living, an energy independent Wales and a lifelong guarantee of retraining, £4bn for new hospitals in Cardiff, Wrexham and West Wales, environmental protections and to end homelessness by 2034 and pay rises for “the lowest paid workers” which could only apply to those whose jobs are dependent on public funding.