Wales will ‘benefit significantly’ due to HS2 says Michael Gove
Wales will “benefit significantly” due to HS2, Michel Gove has said, as the country misses out on £4.6 billion of funding.
His comments come after Wales’ First Minister slammed the UK Government’s “neglect” of rail infrastructure in Wales as “pathetic”.
Wales will not benefit in the same way as Scotland and Northern Ireland from additional rail funding as a result of the HS2 project as it has been designated an England and Wales project.
Speaking in the Senedd yesterday Mark Drakeford said that Wales was not treated fairly by the UK Government and added that calling HS2 an England and Wales project was “absolutely nonsensical”.
However, the Levelling Up Secretary said today that the designation was justified as Wales would benefit from being better connected to other parts of the UK.
“I do not think Wales loses out as a result of HS2,” he told the House of Commons. “I think north Wales in particular benefits significantly because of increased connectivity.”
‘Same advantage’
He was responding to a question from Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney MP Gerald Davies who asked why Wales would not see any of the financial benefits of the project.
“Wales is set to be denied £4.6 billion as a result of the Government classifying HS2 as an England and Wales project, despite the Treasury finding that Wales would lose out on £150 million per annum as a result of HS2,” Gerald Davies said.
“That does not sound like levelling up to me. Does the Secretary of State agree?”
Last year the cross-party Welsh Affairs committee called for the rail scheme to be reclassified as an ‘England only’ project.
“We recommend that HS2 should be reclassified as an England only project,” it said. “Using the Barnett Formula, Wales’ funding settlement should be recalculated to apply an additional allocation based on the funding for HS2 in England.
“We suggest that such a reclassification would help to ensure that Welsh rail passengers receive the same advantage from investment in HS2 as those in Scotland and Northern Ireland.”
HS2 is a high-speed railway that aims to improve links between London, the midlands and the north of England with routes to Birmingham and Leeds.
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The tories should be voted out of Welsh constituencies for this scam alone.
Plaid are the Tories best Hope.
The Tories best hope is that Labour continue to toe the Unionist line with them, which allows the Tories to continually undermine the Senedd with impunity.
Please nation.cymru, stop publishing such frighteningly, stomach churning photos as prefaces this article. Surely you have standards.
This is total nonsense
The sooner we seize independence from this shower the better
As usual the Tories think we are stupid, there aren’t any benefits we all know this. All they are doing is pushing us closer to independence. Bring it on, independence is long overdue.
Does he seriously take us for fools?
He does.
What chance has WALES Got of ever getting fair play when a government minister can stand there and talk sutch utter nonsense it makes me very sad that people like that are in power over what is payed too Wales the only ANSWER IS TO GO FOR INDEPENDENCE as soon as possible
Geography is not his strongest subject. Economics neither. Westminster does not seem overly populated by geniuses at the moment…
Ever since terminal 5 opened at Heathrow life in Wales has been joyous
They are fleecing us, Labour in Cymru, do the decent thing and stop treating them as if they respect us, I really cannot understand why you think that this level of abuse is sustainable in your support for this rancid union
HS2 will significantly cut the amount of time it will take to travel from London to Scotland, yet it is not counted as a Scottish project in any way, which means they will receive significant funding to compensate. As per usual, the Tories treat Wales with utter disdain, and all because most of us continue to vote for unionist parties.
Gove’s been on those funny powders again. Is he ever off them any more ?
If anyone has studied HS2 economics and understood it’s ‘business’ plan, the deceit and fundamental flaws and masses of meaningless assumptions that it contains demonstrate that nobody benefits from HS2, let alone Wales. The entire project should have been scrapped years ago on the grounds of national economics and environmental destruction.
HS2 does not contribute towards this nations future transport infrastructure requirements in any way, shape or form. As the most expensive project ever proposed by any British Government in peacetime, it is nothing other than a monumental disaster.
TGV jealousy by London.
Westminster thieves.
Having read the article and seen Michael Gove’s apparent lack of understanding of the Geography of these islands, could I ask any academic Geographers who might be reading NC if they have any ‘Year 1’ map reading courses available on line? I think we could possibly launch a Crowdfunder so that all Cabinet Members could have free access to the course and finally understand the geography of the UK. I think priority shouod go to any Minister who’s Brief includes the word Wales.
It appears that they (Tories) deludedly believe their own propaganda