MORNING SERIAL
RAIL spending is devolved in Northern Ireland and Scotland, and therefore because of the Barnett Formula the Scots are expecting a windfall of around £10 billion over the next decade or so and are already debating how this should be spent. Rail isn’t devolved for Wales, meaning it will not automatically receive a share of this spending.
However, this doesn’t mean that Wales should necessarily miss out. The UK government Treasury has set a precedent in the past that means when a project only benefits England, Wales will receive a percentage equivalent of the cash. This happened when they built Crossrail.
Estimates suggest that if Wales received its fair share of HS2 funding as Scotland will, it would add up to around £5 billion.
Unfortunately for the people of Wales, in the case of HS2 the UK government has decided instead to list it as an “England and Wales” project, meaning Wales will receive none of the cash allocated to Scotland and Northern Ireland.
This is despite the fact that, as we have said, none of the track is in Wales and the UK government’s own analysis actually estimates the south Wales economy could lose out by £200 million per year once HS2 is finished.
When I approached the UK government and asked what benefit Wales was seeing to enable this to be classed as a Welsh project, they replied simply with a two-sentence statement: ‘HS2 will provide faster and more frequent train services to north Wales. The HS2 Interchange at Crewe will bring many parts of north Wales within two and a quarter hours of London, faster than the current West Coast Main Line services to Holyhead.’
This sums up the subservient nature of the current relationship between the two countries.
The entirety of the benefits for Wales amount to being able to get to England more quickly. Nothing about dealing with the total shambles that are Wales’ railways.
Very, very little of Wales’ track is actually electrified compared to England and Scotland.
> Independent Nation by Will Hayward is published by Biteback Publishing at £15 hardback and £9.99 ebook, https://www.bitebackpublishing.com/books/independent-nation
CONTINUES TOMORROW