Welsh Labour MPs urged to press for rail funding justice for Wales
Martin Shipton
A former Welsh Labour MP has urged his ex-colleagues in the Commons to stand up for Wales by demanding extra funds for rail infrastructure following news that the cost of the planned HS2 route in England is spiralling.
Successive Conservative and Labour governments have insisted on classifying HS2 as an England and Wales project, despite not a metre of the planned route passing through Wales.
As a result of the decision, Wales is in line to lose out on billions of pounds in “Barnett consequential” funding that it would have been entitled to if HS2 had been designated an England-only route.
Geraint Davies, the MP for Swansea West from 2010 to 2024, said: “Wales needs its £5bn share of HS2 from Andy Burnham and Welsh MPs should be asking for the pledge so the scheme helps Wales as well as Manchester and London if he becomes PM.
“The HS2 railway will cost over £100bn and take 13 years for the first London to Birmingham trains, so let’s see investment in Wales in the meantime to catch up our economic productivity and boost our investment attractiveness.
“Wales has endured decades of getting 1.5% of UK rail investment for 5% of the population, resulting in lower economic growth and wages.
“When Andy Burnham asks Welsh MPs to pledge their support they should be bidding for investment in Wales not just for a place in his team. It’s time for change, not just loose change for Wales.”
The overwhelming majority of MPs elected from Wales – 27 out of 32 – are Welsh Labour.
We asked Welsh Labour to provide us with a statement, preferably from the party’s deputy leader Carolyn Harris, the MP for Swansea West, but we received no response.
Earlier this week UK Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said the HS2 high-speed railway would now cost up to £102.7bn and trains will not start running between London and Birmingham until as late as 2039 – £70bn more and 13 years later than originally promised.
The figure is the first official estimate of HS2’s budget in 2026 prices. Alexander said the total cost would range between £87.7bn and £102.7bn, with only a third of the rise resulting from inflation.
Trains between Old Oak Common in west London and Birmingham Curzon Street will now start running in 2039, with the full railway running from London Euston to join the west coast mainline in Staffordshire completed between 2040 and 2043.
‘Credible estimates’
Alexander said the forecasts were “built on solid foundations with credible estimates as ranges”, after a 15-month review conducted by HS2 Ltd’s chief executive, Mark Wild, on taking up the post.
She blamed the previous Conservative government for standing by and watching “the world’s most expensive slow-motion car crash”, saying that Labour had inherited a “litany of failure”.
While inflation played a part, Alexander said two-thirds of the budget increase was due to works being missed from the scope of the original plans, underestimates and inefficient delivery.
She added: “I can confirm that the previous government spent most of HS2’s budget without laying a single mile of track. That is the shocking legacy … If it seems like an obscene increase in times and costs, that is because it is. And if it seems like I’m angry, I am.”
She said the government had considered cancelling the entire project, but that it could cost almost as much to cancel the line as finish it.
However, she said trains would be operated at lower speeds, to save about £2.5bn, reducing the top speed from about 225mph to about nearly 200mph, in line with most international standards.
Alexander said Wild and HS2 Ltd’s chair, Mike Brown, “have an almost impossible task on their hands” to turn the project around, but would be managing contracts properly with improved oversight.
Spending on HS2 is guaranteed until 2029-30 under the spending review.
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Well that is one things the Welsh sec and Labour M P,s have not done is stick up of for Wales they have just stayed QUIET
Why didn’t Geraint Davies say this in the House of Commons when he sat as a Labour MP? His replacement, Torsten Bell, was parachuted into Wales from London by the Labour Party and he says no.
Exactly
Carolyn’s possible response: “I just wouldn’t.”
‘on classifying HS2 as an England and Wales project, despite not a metre of the planned route passing through Wales.‘ Problem is there’s no legal validity to this complaint. Consequentials are paid with respect to spending in devolved areas. The Plaid Manifesto itself acknowledges that this area is reserved. Who does or doesn’t benefit from a policy isn’t relevant.
The legal blockage is in the Railways Act 2005. At the time Wales was given the opportunity to devolve the infrastructure budget, an opportunity taken by Scotland, but not by the Welsh Government at the time. Rhodri Morgan FM decided against it based on the advice from Mark Drakeford, then his SpAd. This is the legacy the Labour Party has left us with.
This isn’t actually about devolution, it’s about Westminster governance and how Whitehall mandarins are abusing their power to benefit and prioritise their own interests rather than having a legal obligation to treat all the areas they are responsible for fairly and equitably. Devolution should only be needed to spend money in ways that better suit devolved populations, it shouldn’t be needed just to get any money spent in these areas at all.
This is probably why the Welsh Cons backed demands for HS2 cash, because they realised it undermined their message that everything would be better with Whitehall in charge.
The article states: “The overwhelming majority of MPs elected from Wales – 27 out of 32 – are Welsh Labour.”
However, in the last UK general only 36% of voters in Wales chose Labour.
If you think this sounds strange, you’ll find some explanations on a different article on this website
Empty rhetoric. It was Labour who turned down the devolution of rail infrastructure 20 years ago which has led to this situation.
Yes, they owe us £5bn PLUS INTEREST.
I’ll be honest, I don’t get the “We wuz robbed” argument. There are plenty of areas in England that were also equally “deprived” by the HS2 project: the West country, Anglia, Northumberland, Cumbria. It was a benefit to the Midlands-ish only, in real terms.
It just seems arbitrary and coincidental. It’s not as if the government sought to deprive Wales particularly.