UK Government set to announce £445m for Welsh rail projects
Emily Price
Chancellor Rachel Reeves is expected to announce £445m for Welsh rail projects in her spending review today.
The UK Government said the funding will be spent on schemes in north and south Wales to help “enhance connectivity between cities, towns and centres of advanced manufacturing”.
The cash will be spent on fixing level crossings, building new stations and upgrading existing lines.
It is understood to be a combination of direct funding and money for the Welsh Government.
‘Transformative’
A treasury source said: “With this Government Wales will thrive, and the Chancellor has prioritised bringing forward a package that has the potential to be truly transformative.”
The insider added that the funding will form the “cornerstone” of UK Government plans to address underinvestment in critical infrastructure that has held back the Welsh economy.
It comes following an ongoing row over the Treasury’s classification HS2.
The operation of the railway in Wales is a Welsh Government responsibility.
But infrastructure planning and the funding of Network Rail in Wales remains reserved to the UK Parliament.
HS2
The situation is different in Scotland, where infrastructure planning is also devolved.
Under the previous Conservative government in Westminster, the £100 billion high-speed rail link was classified as an “England and Wales” scheme despite none of the track crossing the Welsh border.
The classification meant no extra cash was released to Wales by the Treasury.
Some politicians believe £4 billion is owed to Wales in rail consequentials through the Barnett formula – the method used to calculate additional funding for devolved administrations.
The Welsh Government’s most recent calculation of how much money is owed to Wales for HS2 stands at £431m so far.
A Labour source said: “This historic investment is down to the tireless work of the Welsh Secretary, Jo Stevens, who has delivered Labour’s promise to right the chronic underfunding of Welsh rail by the Tories.
“This investment is more than Wales would have had so far had HS2 been Barnettised. It will make a massive difference economically and politically.”
‘Fair share’
Former Transport minister Lee Waters made similar comments.
He said: “Civil servants calculated that we lost out £431 in Barnett formula funding by the way the high-speed rail project was categorised by the Treasury. This £445 million makes good on that.
“We will have to wait to see what exact schemes the Chancellor is agreeing to but that figure would allow the priority schemes that the Welsh Government and the UK Department of Transport had been working on to go ahead.
“The agreed pipeline included the main recommendations from the two Burns Commission reports for north Wales and south east Wales.
“The key congestion busting measures along the Newport M4 corridor, an upgrade to the line that now mainly carries freight trains, and a suite of new stations to divert commuters away from the roads.
“And in north Wales improvements to Wrexham – Liverpool line and money to improve North Wales Coast.
“Taken together this is a very significant package of rail investment, much more than we ever got from the Tories, and will make a real difference to people.
“We now need to make sure we get a change to how funding works for rail so that this is the beginning of a pipeline of investment into the future”
But Plaid Cymru and the Welsh Conservatives say Wales is owed more than £445m.
‘Injustice’
Plaid’s spokesperson on Finance, Heledd Fychan MS said: “£445m is merely a drop in the ocean compared to the billions Wales is owed on rail, and what Labour – up until they came into power – used to agree with us on.
“The people of Wales have seen this injustice for what it is – Wales being shortchanged by successive Westminster governments. This announcement won’t change that.
“Unlike ambitionless Labour who will settle for less to save their Starmer’s blushes, Plaid Cymru will keep demanding that Wales is given every penny its owed and for the full powers over our rail infrastructure.”
Leader of the Senedd Tories Darren Millar said: “This spending review is a kick in the teeth to the people of Wales, who have been taken for granted by Labour for far too long.
“The promised rail investment falls well short of the £1bn plus in rail funding planned by the previous UK Conservative Government for the electrification of the North Wales line.
“And it is disappointing that there is no extra cash to enable either the delivery of an M4 relief road or upgrades to the A55 and A40 trunk roads.
“Whether it’s the Family Farms Tax, the Jobs Tax, or today’s spending review, Eluned Morgan in Cardiff Bay and Keir Starmer in Westminster have failed, forgotten and fleeced the people of Wales.”
Oxford – Cambridge
A fresh rail funding row was sparked earlier this month when Liberal Democrat MP David Chadwick uncovered the Oxford to Cambridge rail scheme would be designated as a England and Wales project.
It later transpired that in the 2020, 2021, 2023, and 2024 editions of the UK Government’s Statement of Funding Policies, the railway line was classified as an England-only project.
The project’s designation was then altered by the new Labour government to be an “England and Wales” scheme.
The Welsh Lib Dems and Plaid say this reclassification will deprive Wales of an additional £360 million in consequential rail funding for its own network.
Chadwick said: “Residents of mid Wales deserve a more regular train service than the 5 trains a day they get at the moment. Investing in the Heart of Wales Line would boost economic growth outside of our big cities.”
Calls have been made for the UK Government to bring forward legislation to devolve rail powers fully to the Welsh Government.
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Nothing for the Cambrian Coast Express or a direct Aber to Pwll you watch…
Cambridge to Pwllheli via Oxford & Aber, nice trip but will take you 2 days if you are lucky !
Can someone please clarify how is it that the Welsh Government claim that Cymru is owed £431m for HS2 when politicians claim that the figure is £4bn? Is the WG working for or against Cymru?
Welsh Governments figure is based on the Barnett Formula for money spent on HS2 from the start upto the current financial year (2025/26). Wales gets the same per capita as England plus an extra 5%. Welsh population has been between 5.7% and 5.9% of England’s during the ten years the project has been running, so plug it into the Barnett formula and you get £431m. The politicians are claiming Wales should receive all the Barnett consequential’s for future years today (project will still be under construction for up to 14 years then there is 40 years of anticipated operating costs),… Read more »
Thank you.
The narrative pushed, especially by opposition byparties has been misleading, for exactly the reasons you list above. HS2 is a 20-30 year project. There are also other factors conveniently overlooked. The question at the back of mind is whether they deliberately exaggerate the number, or they genuinely don’t understand how these projects are financed and Barnett is calculated, thus oversimplify, or is it both?
£445m for Welsh rail projects is peanuts compared to the £6.6bn that England is spending on a Oxford to Cambridge line. Why is it that Cymru always gets the dregs?
The £1.54bn that is being spent on the South Wales Metro (if it was purely a Welsh funded project) plugged into the Barnett Formula with the Welsh population and Wales getting 5% more per person than England is the equivalent Barnett consequential of spending £25.67bn on rail in England.
This is nonsense. The South Wales Metro is funded by the WG using existing budget lines and the newly obtained powers to borrow. Reverse Barnettisation is not a thing!
Ah but it is a “thing” that fills the minds of London centred folk.
The reservation of rail infrastructure does not include rail projects entirely within Wales, therefore the South Wales Metro is a devolved matter, as Geraint Thomas pointed out was funded by the Welsh Government. By the same logic rail projects entirely within England should be classified as England only.
The metro system is also partly funded by the EU, through the European Regional Development fund, without which the project would not have been started.
To someone like me planning my working day for funds tomorrow, £445m is an alien figure to me. Will it recover for Cymru some or all of the HS2 and Oxbridge rip off or does it just build a shelter to keep a dozen passengers dry on one station here?
Labour are taking us all for fools and people aren’t as stupid as they think we are.
Clever narrative by Labour to say: “Oh look we are delivering for Wales” Sorry this does not get them off the hook. By their own admitted that the HS2 designation as an ‘England and Wales project’ was wrong, only to do the same with Oxford to Cambridge.
Just to clarify regarding the reservation of Rail Infrastructure. It does NOT include railway services that start and end in Wales (ie the Valley lines, Conwy Valley railway). Therefore since HS2 and Oxford-Cambridge are entirely within England they are England-only projects, even rail infrastructure is not devolved!!
The Heads Of The Valleys road scheme is almost complete and soon to be renamed the Second Home Expressway, Oxford to Gower is now just a Bentley ride away.
A similar Express Rail Line is now planned for Knightsbridge to Swansea for those who want the train to take the strain and us plebs will get some trams and posh bus shelters to keep us off the M4 and the main rail lines.
Hold the fireworks. Let me get this straight in my head. One rail infrastructure build in England is getting £10 billion from UK Labour, and that’s Euston Station in London being connected to HS2, and Wales a poultry £445 million lol? They really are taking the p#*@.
One idea might be to ask plaid how they derived their numbers, and simultaneously ask WG how they came to theirs. You could then have form an opinion based upon information available.
Someone in Scotland did this recently via an FOI request and I’m afraid the numbers came out closer to the WG number.
So all the halla Ballo about £450 million for Welsh railways PEANUTS to what england gets Scotland and Northern Ireland will have the money as well BILLIONS OWED TO WALES FOR H S 2 crumbs of the table for Wales Liebour and Tory ROB WALES BLIND keep us down like the english did in days of Empire and we are still treated as a colony WAKE UP PEOPLE OF WALES AND THROW OF THE SHACKLES OF ENGLAND ONLY THEN CAN WE THRIVE
Unfortunately there isn’t much left for us to ‘thrive’ on. The English have been busy plundering our assets and resources for centuries. Look at it this way: They were hell-bent on conquering our country way back in the 12th-15th centuries and robbing us of anything of value so now they can keep us. We didn’t ask to unite with them. They did it with force 20-1 against. Brave people. Even now they are invading us by buying up all the houses. Soon, if not stopped, they will own everything. They are also at it in places like France and Spain.… Read more »
At this rate we’ll be waiting until the 22nd century to get a rail infrastructure network fit for the 21st century
And in Mid Wales…….
1. Upgrade the Heart of Wales line.
2. The Cambrian to have an hourly service.
For residents and all year service not just for visitors.
3. Open the Trawsfyndd link from Blaenau Ffestiniog.
4. Open the link from Dollgellau to Morfa Mawddach