Plaid Cymru to force HS2 vote in Senedd

Emily Price

Plaid Cymru is set to force the Welsh Government to vote on seeking full consequential funding for HS2 from their counterparts in Westminster.

On Wednesday (March 12) the Senedd will debate a Plaid Cymru motion calling on Welsh ministers to support the re-designation of HS2 as an England-only project.

The party will also call on the the Welsh Government to write to UK ministers to demand the full consequential funding from the project.

Cash

The high speed rail line was classified as an England and Wales scheme by the previous Conservative UK government despite it not crossing the border.

The new Labour UK Government has also refused to budge from this position.

The classification means no consequential cash has been released to Wales by the Treasury using the controversial Barnett formula.

This is usually determined based on whether the UK Government increases or decreases funding for departments that cover devolved areas.

The Welsh Government has been accused of changing its expectation of HS2 consequential payments after Labour won the General Election.

It was previously calculated that Wales has missed out on around £4bn of funding from the scheme.

Once Labour came to power in Westminster, the Welsh Government calculated that Wales was missing out on around £350m in funding.

But the Cabinet Secretary for Finance Mark Drakeford has recently produced detailed workings-out that show Wales has been robbed of £431m so far.

Mr Drakeford says it is “highly likely that the estimate will increase again once settlements are announced for the next few years in the UK Government’s Spending review on June 11 this year.”

Plaid Cymru says that ministers in Cardiff Bay should “make a stand” against their Labour colleagues in London.

‘Deprived’

Peredur Owen Griffiths, who will be leading next week’s Senedd debate says that Welsh railways have been “deprived of funding for decades”.

A 2020 report from the Welsh Government states that they face “a shortfall of between £2.4 billion and £5.1 billion in rail enhancement funding” over the period between 2019 and 2029.

Plaid Cymru’s Transport spokesperson in the Senedd says Welsh railways will never reach their full potential without this funding.

Mr Owen Griffiths said: “Wales has been deprived of funding from Westminster for decades, and nowhere is this better exemplified than in our railways.

“Our railways have the potential to be so much more than the dated-infrastructure and delayed-services that we currently see.

“But without the billions of pounds we are denied from both Labour and Tory UK Governments, our railways will never realise their potential.

“When Labour came into power in Westminster, we were promised change, they called with us for our fair share of rail funding and for the £4BN from HS2. It’s clear now that was nothing more than a campaign slogan.

“We have no HS2 cash, and on top of that, our railways will still be underfunded to the tune of up to £5BN between 2019 and 2029.

“Plaid Cymru are bringing this motion to the Senedd to demand that Labour in Wales make a stand. To stand up for Wales, to stand up for fair funding, to stand up to their bosses in London, all of which they have failed to do over the last seven months.

“Only Plaid Cymru stands up for our fair share of HS2 funding, for fair funding, and for Wales.”