Fears grow that HS2 ‘may cost Wales billions’
CROSS-PARTY concern is mounting about the cost of HS2 amid fears that Wales will “lose out on billions of pounds” as a result of the high-speed rail project.
Plaid Cymru argues that the formula used to allocate funding means the Welsh Government will not receive as generous a cash uplift as Scotland or Northern Ireland.
The warning comes as leading Conservatives are speaking out to criticise the flagship infrastructure project.
Jacob Rees-Mogg, one of the leading Tory opponents of Theresa May’s Brexit plans, told the New Civil Engineer magazine this month it was “absolutely time to face the facts and pull the plug on the HS2 project”.
He said: “I think we must face up to reality . . . We must not fall foul of investing more time and money into something just because we have already invested a lot into it.”
Esther McVey, who is now Work and Pensions Secretary, reportedly told constituents in November 2017, it emerged this month, that the cost of the project, which the UK Government insists it is committed to delivering within its £55.7bn budget, “might now be more than £100bn”.
Former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has said there are other projects which ought to “take precedence over HS2” and Commons Leader Andrea Leadsom has reportedly called for it to be scrapped.
Plaid Cymru Transport spokesman and Carmarthen East and Dinefwr MP Jonathan Edwards MP said: “We are asking for nothing more than our fair share as set out in the devolution deal. Just the £5bn we are owed from Westminster spending £100bn on an English railway line . . . Like a black hole, London-focused infrastructure projects continue to suckup every last penny of Westminster spending.”
Labour peer Tony Berkeley has warned HS2 is “likely to run massively overbudget”. The controversy over HS2 funding comes in the wake of last year’s cancellation of the electrification of the Great Western line from Cardiff to Swansea. There is also concern that if HS2 slashes journey times between London and English cities it will be harder for south Wales to market itself as an ideal location for out-of-London headquarters.
In July last year it was revealed that 1,425 contracts had been awarded to English suppliers for work on HS2 but just 17 to those based in Wales.
Mr Edwards said: “Whilst transport infrastructure in Wales has barely seen investment since man was last on the moon. HS2 will cost almost seven times the entire Welsh budget.
“That’s seven times the amount of money that will be invested in the Welsh NHS and education system spent on one railway line in England.
“Electrifying the South Wales Main Line to Swansea costs less than half a percent of HS2, but for Wales, that is too much to ask from Westminster,” he added.
Aberconwy Conservative MP and former Defence Minister Guto Bebb said there was a history of projects costing much more than originally estimated.
He said: “I think, genuinely, the rationale for HS2 was debatable when we were talking about a project that was going to cost £50bn . . . My experience unfortunately as the Minister for Defence Procurement, has highlighted project after project which was initially promised to be delivered at x and ended up being developed at x+50%...
“If there is spending on HS2 then there should be a consequential for Wales.”
Plaid accused the Welsh Government of not doing enough to secure a fair share of UK Government spending. it contends that under the formula used to allocate cash there is the a risk that, unlike Scotland and Northern Ireland, Wales will receive a “smaller slice of the overall funding”.
However, a Welsh Government spokesman said: “Wales has received additional funding over the current spending review period as a result of increases in the Department for Transport budget, which in large part arise from funding for HS2.
“We have consistently made representations to the UK Government that Wales should continue to get its fair share of additional funding as a result of HS2 in the next spending review period and beyond.
“We will continue to press this case in the run up to the next spending review.”
A UK Government spokesman said: “We are investing a record amount in renewing Wales’ rail infrastructure to improve reliability and reduce disruption across the network. Network Rail forecasts spending of £2bn in Wales up to 2024.”
The UK Government argues that people in north Wales will benefit from HS2 connections at Crewe.