Carwyn Jones: Wales will receive HS2 consequentials

PLAID CYMRU has accused the Welsh Government of ‘doing nothing’ for three years to secure a share of funding for Wales from the HS2 rail project. However, the Welsh Government has claimed that this is ‘nonsense’ and that Wales will receive hundreds of millions of pounds as a direct result of HS2 spending. Plaid Cymru’s Westminster Treasury spokesman Jonathan Edwards wrote to the first ministers of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland asking them to consider opposing the project if the devolved nations did not receive financial compensation. In his letter of response on June 2, First Minister Carwyn Jones said the Welsh Government had “made representations to the UK Treasury previously about High Speed Rail funding.”
The First Minister concluded that his government would ‘continue to press Wales’ case on this issue of High Speed Rail… aiming to ensure that all parts of the UK receive full consequentials arising from decisions about High Speed Rail.” However, Mr Edwards claims that, following a series of Parliamentary questions and an FoI request, it has been revealed that the Welsh Government has made no formal representations to any UK Government Minister or Department on the matter in the last three years.
In response to one question, asked in Parliament in October, Robert Goodwill MP said that ‘Ministers have not received representations from the Welsh Government regarding HS2 and Barnett consequentials.’ Following a written question to the Chancellor of the Exchequer in which Mr Edwards asked what representations had been received from the Welsh Government concerning Barnett consequential from HS2, he received the reply that ‘Treasury Ministers are in regular contact with Welsh Government Ministers on a variety of matters.’
Jonathan Edwards said: “In the Assembly chamber, on television interviews and in newspaper articles Labour elected members and spokespeople from Wales are misleading the public on their support for our nation getting a fair share of this enormous rail investment project in England.
“It’s bad enough that Labour MPs from Wales supported the project despite being fully aware that it will suck hundreds of millions of pounds out of the Welsh economy each and every year. Now, however, the First Minister and his party have been exposed as having done nothing to back up their rhetoric. Indeed, I would say that the First Minister, including in his letter to me, has tried to pull the wool over our eyes.
“With every week that passes more and more people recognise that there will be a huge injustice unless Wales has full fairness from HS2. It was growing public pressure that saw the Labour Party u-turn in the first place. But just like so many other occasions, the Welsh Government will play to the gallery but never follow through with actions. “The reality is that the Labour party supports HS2 and the Welsh branch office will always put the interests of the Labour party before the interests of Wales.”
In Parliament this week the Secretary of State for Transport said Wales would benefit from the high speed rail project, but avoided answering the direct question from Mr Edwards who wanted to know why Wales was being unfairly treated in relation to HS2 expenditure. Mr Edwards asked the Transport Secretary: “Given that, unlike Network Rail, HS2 Ltd is not devolved to any part of the United Kingdom, will the Secretary of State explain why the statement of funding policy for the devolved institutions, which was published along with last week’s comprehensive spending review, provides for a 100% Barnett consequential from HS2 to Scotland and Northern Ireland, and one of 0% to Wales?”
The Transport Secretary said “I believe that Wales will benefit from what I have announced today, because it will be very important to the north Wales economy.” Speaking after his question, Mr Edwards said: “The way HS2 has been handled stinks to high heaven. An independent report says the Welsh economy will lose over £200million a year yet Labour and Tory politicians are blissfully content to see a generation’s worth of transport investment swallowed up, with our nation paying for transport improvements in English cities, and then have the audacity to tell us we should be grateful.
“As has been shown, the First Minister, his government and Labour party in Wales have done nothing more to secure funds from HS2 than issue a press release over three years ago. “The people of Wales deserve a government that will always act in the Welsh national interest as opposed to the interests of their London bosses.”
However, a spokesman for First Minister Carwyn Jones rejected these claims: “Plaid Cymru have fallen asleep on this issue – they are way behind the curve,” he claimed. “Their propensity for getting things wrong on funding just shows they can’t be trusted with the Welsh economy. “These particular claims are, again, nonsense. “Welsh Ministers have made representations to the UK Government to ensure Wales gets its fair share of additional funding as a result of HS2.
“As a result, Wales will receive a Barnett consequential of more than £755m over the next five years because of increased UK Department for Transport budgets, a consequence of the investment being made in HS2. “However, we have long been of the view that the Barnett Formula itself does Wales no favours and have repeatedly called for fair funding. “We welcome the UK Government’s commitment to a ‘funding floor’ to deliver fair funding for Wales as part of the Spending Review, and await the details.”