THREE high street banks have achieved special recognition as part of a Welsh Government scheme to protect payments to SMEs on large scale public sector construction projects.

Barclays, NatWest and Lloyds have all been declared Nominated Service Providers, after meeting new criteria for the Project Bank Accounts (PBA) initiative.

PBAs are ring-fenced bank accounts which ensure supply chain construction businesses involved in public sector schemes receive payment in five days or less. This helps ease cash flow when traditional payment timescales for subcontractors not using PBAs can be up to 90 days. PBAs also protect payments against insolvency.

SMEs using the three accredited banks can be confident they will receive a high level of support when setting up PBAs.

The Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Welsh Language, Mark Drakeford, said: “Project Bank Accounts offer strong support to our construction industry. By ensuring SMEs receive payments within five days, we’re providing cash flow protection that helps these businesses thrive.

“Having three major banks now accredited as Nominated Service Providers strengthens this initiative, giving SMEs the confidence and support they need.”

PBAs are a condition of funding on all in scope Welsh Government construction projects and are encouraged as best practice for the wider public sector.

The Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Planning, Rebecca Evans, said:

“Construction-based SMEs in Wales have told us that long waits and chasing late payments burdens their businesses and prevents them from expanding and securing new contracts.

“We have worked with the banking sector to address this issue and I am delighted Barclays, NatWest and Lloyds are the first three banks to meet the new criteria of this scheme.”

WELSH politics is a looking-glass world. There is a Labour Government in Cardiff Bay held in such contempt by Welsh constituency Labour MPs that its policies are dismissed as “for the birds”. Even bearing that in mind, Wednesday, March 12, was a day in the Senedd that went from the bizarre to the surreal.

GETTING WALES A FAIR SHARE

Plaid called a debate on transport funding. Their motion called on the Welsh Government to confirm its position that Wales should receive the resultant consequentials in line with figures quoted by current UK Government Ministers when in opposition. It also asked for the Welsh Government to write to the UK Secretary of State for Transport to ask for the full consequentials to be made available to Wales.

The “consequentials” referred to are the £4.2bn that the Labour Government in Wales and Labour MPs and ministers in Westminster called for from the Conservative government. The Conservative government under David Cameron designated HS2 an England and Wales project despite the fact that not one centimetre of track or one cubic metre of concrete would be in Wales. Scotland received funding as a result of the project’s cost. Wales did not.

The pursuit of funding for Wales as a result of HS2 is uncontroversial in the Welsh Parliament. EVERY party, including the Conservatives, have consistently called for the funding to come to Wales for years. It is Welsh Government policy.

In those circumstances, Plaid’s motion calling for the Welsh Government to stand by its policy and write to the Secretary of State for Transport should have been uncontroversial. All those Labour MSs who spent years talking about how the Tories had robbed Wales of funding on a transparent ruse would surely line up to demand that their Labour comrades do likewise.

THE WORLD OF UNREASON

Alas, on Wednesday, March 12, things took a turn so surreal that a visitor from a country taking the first steps towards democracy might well have turned around after watching what unfolded and begged for the return of a repressive dictatorship in their nation.

Instead, Labour Minister Jane Hutt filed an amendment to Plaid Cymru’s motion that deleted any reference to HS2 funding and instead thanked Westminster for not nuking Cardiff. That last might be an exaggeration, but not much of one.

As the debate unfolded, our fictional visitor from a foreign land would’ve been forgiven if they’d spent a long time looking for the hidden camera and the gotcha reveal.

Labour MS after Labour MS stood up and pilloried the last Conservative government for failing to fund transport infrastructure in Wales adequately. Labour after Labour MS stood up and praised their Labour counterparts in Westminster for notionally increasing funding for transport infrastructure in Wales. All those Labour MSs conspicuously failed to support the Welsh government’s policy that Wales should get full consequential funding from HS2. Of course, they’d all like to have it, but now there is a Labour government at the other end of the M4, it doesn’t matter to them. Or, if it does, those speaking from the Labour benches in the debate are hypocrites whose previous call for funding was grandstanding duplicity.

We had the bizarre experience of watching Welsh Labour MSs barracking Welsh Conservative MSs during the latter’s speeches, calling for nothing more than the Welsh Labour government to follow its policy. And also to write a formal letter to the Labour Westminster government repeating its previous calls for equitable treatment.

As virtually all Labour MSs represent constituencies within the South Wales Metro area, a project already well underway and scheduled for completion relatively soon, it came as no surprise that they mentioned that project. Somehow, none of them mentioned that Westminster’s funding for it via funding to Cardiff Bay long predated July 4, 2024.

Outside South Wales, they were not much interested.

There wasn’t as much as lip service to rural Wales’s transport needs. Instead, Labour MSs mentioned “a pipeline of projects”, most of which are not advanced beyond the blue-sky-thinking stage.

DODDS’ DOWNBEAT CONTRIBUTION SHINES

Plaid’s contributions were not much better. Instead of a laser focus on HS2 funding, their motion gave Labour members a chance to chip away at comparatively small beer in financial terms. “Who needs £4.2bn when we’ve been told we’ll get £34m for Labour constituencies?”

Two factors hamstrung the Conservatives’ contributions. First, none of their best performers spoke in the debate. Second, the last Conservative government not only ignored their calls over HS2 funding but also made unfunded pledges for rail infrastructure in Wales.

It took the Welsh Parliament’s sole Liberal Democrat to point out the fatuousness of Labour MSs’ posturing conduct and the Welsh government’s abuse of the amendment system.

Jane Dodds said: “This is really quite depressing for two reasons. One is that those two parties just want to tear chunks out of each other for not doing what the other one thinks they should be doing. And the second reason—and I am very frustrated with the Welsh Government—is the ‘delete all’ that you’ve put on the motion.

“I challenge every single one of you here just to reread what the motion calls for. With the greatest of respect to my Labour colleagues, let’s remind ourselves. Do tell me what you disagree with here.

“It ‘calls on the Welsh Government to provide updated figures on the shortfall in rail enhancement investment in Wales’. What’s wrong with that? 

“Secondly [it asks the Welsh Government to] ‘confirm its position that HS2 should be redesignated as an England-only project and that Wales should receive the resultant consequentials in line with figures quoted by current UK Government Ministers when in opposition’.

“What’s wrong with that? 

“And thirdly: ‘write to the UK Secretary of State for Transport to ask for the full consequentials to be made available to Wales and reversal of low levels of enhancement spending.’

“That is the focus and the ask of this debate. We all accept that services could be better elsewhere, in ‘where I live’ or whatever, but it’s not about that. I feel these Wednesday afternoon debates are really the opposition parties putting down a motion and the Welsh Government saying ‘delete all’, and it feels like on this occasion just for the point of doing it.”

Her reward for a thoughtful intervention was another interruption from Alun Davies MS. This time, Mr Davies pointed out Ms Dodds’s Liberal Democrat colleague was transport minister in the coalition when HS2 was designated for England and Wales.

As whataboutery goes, it’s hard to beat. It is for Mr Davies to explain how what a Liberal Democrat MP did a dozen or more years ago was relevant to the terms of Wednesday’s debate and why the promises made by Labour in Westminster while it was in opposition no longer bind it. Perhaps Labour MPs in Westminster are as hypocritical and as guilty of grandstanding as their Cardiff Bay counterparts.

SKATES SPEECH BEYOND PARODY

One thing neither Alun Davies nor any other Labour MS addressed was the substance of what Jane Dodds said. They couldn’t explain what they opposed in the motion or elucidate any points of disagreement. Labour filed their “delete all” amendment and opposed the motion not because they opposed it or disagreed with it but because they’d been told to oppose it and disagree with it.

Transport Minister Ken Skates’s response to the debate was so risible that he ended up talking about Plaid’s policy on Welsh independence instead of the motion before the Chamber. Mr Skates fatuously stated that it was a good job Wales wasn’t independent because then there’d be no question of funding from Westminster, let alone HS2 funding.

At that point, our foreign visitor was on the plane back to their homeland, plotting to burn down polling stations before the disease spread.

Heledd Fychan, for Plaid, tried in vain to get the Transport Minister to stick to the motion’s point. It proved beyond Mr Skates. She may as well have tried nailing jelly to a wall.

As Labour members unanimously voted against doing something that reflects Welsh government policy, all that was missing was a Terry Gilliam animation and the closing credits to Eluned Morgan’s Flying Circus.

This is how devolution ends, not with a bang but to the strains of The Liberty Bell March.

THE WELSH steel industry is facing renewed pressure after the United States imposed a 25% tariff on all UK steel and aluminium imports. The decision, effective from March 12, has sparked widespread concern among industry leaders and politicians, who warn it could deal a severe blow to an already struggling sector.

Impact on Welsh steel

Wales is home to key steel plants, including Tata Steel’s Port Talbot facility and operations in Trostre (Llanelli), Celsa (Cardiff), Llanwern (Newport), and Shotton (Deeside). The U.S. market plays a crucial role in the UK steel sector, accounting for around 9% of exports by value and 7% by volume. The newly imposed tariffs threaten to undermine the competitiveness of Welsh steel producers in this vital export market.

Jonathan Reynolds, the UK Business Secretary, described the U.S. decision as “disappointing,” stressing the importance of diplomacy to negotiate a resolution. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Keir Starmer has stated that all options remain open but that the priority is constructive engagement to remove the barriers imposed by the U.S.

Calls for retaliation

Welsh Liberal Democrat MP David Chadwick has called for a tougher stance. He said: “This development only goes to show that Donald Trump and his sidekick Elon Musk ride roughshod over UK interests, while the Conservatives and Nigel Farage gleefully cheer them on.

“Labour must respond to Trump’s move with a show of strength to protect what is left of the Welsh steel industry. We know from his previous actions that this is the only way to stand up to him.

“The Government should now draw up plans for retaliatory tariffs, including a Tesla tariff to hit Musk where it hurts.”

Industry concerns

Steel industry representatives have echoed concerns over the potential consequences. Gareth Stace, Director General of UK Steel, described the tariffs as “hugely damaging,” warning that they come at a time when the UK steel sector is already struggling with high energy costs, sluggish domestic demand, and an increasingly protectionist global market.

Global trade tensions

The European Union has announced countermeasures on €26 billion worth of U.S. goods in response to the tariffs, set to take effect from April 1. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called the tariffs “unjustified” and said the EU’s response would be “swift and proportionate.”

While the UK has so far refrained from immediate retaliation, government officials are under mounting pressure to act. With the steel industry being a vital part of Wales’ economy, many argue that without decisive intervention, the sector could face further decline.

As negotiations continue, Welsh steel producers face an uncertain future, with the need for strong political support and strategic planning to secure the industry’s survival in a challenging global landscape.