Infrastructure Investment Plan ‘Delivers For Wales’

Wrexham Assembly Member Lesley Griffiths has welcomed the annual report of one of the Welsh Government’s key policies as it continues to impact positively throughout the nation.

The Wales Infrastructure Investment Plan (WIIP) was published in May 2012 and has helped deliver new affordable homes, new health facilities and new schools.

The report shows how the Welsh Government has levered £1.3 billion of additional capital into infrastructure projects and delivered or progressed key projects throughout Wales.

Despite cuts to the capital budget imposed by the UK Government, the Welsh Government has continued to focus on its priorities by maximising opportunities and undertaking additional financial ventures and projects.

Extra capital and new innovative schemes have been financed by switching funds and careful management in other areas of spending. This has enabled the Welsh Government to extend the Local Government Borrowing Initiative, a programme which has already benefited Wrexham with the improvement of Croesnewydd Road near the Wrexham Maelor Hospital.

In the short term, the additional investment from capital reserves, totalling over £460m, has the potential to create around 8,000 jobs during construction phases. In the longer term it will boost growth and support the delivery of more efficient public services.

The WIIP has driven collaboration across Government with work currently underway to develop an Infrastructure Priority in the 2014-2020 European Structural Fund Programmes which could potentially provide £1.8 billion of investment into Wales, significantly contributing to the delivery of key priorities.

Commenting AM Griffiths said

“One of the Welsh Government’s commitments in their Programme for Government was to publish an infrastructure plan for Wales and the latest report highlights it is delivering results and continuing to evolve.”

“I am proud the Welsh Labour Government is doing all it can to minimise the detrimental impact of the cuts to the capital budget imposed by the Tory/Liberal Democrat coalition UK Government.”

“The developments are on-going with further finance initiatives to build upon and I trust the Wales Infrastructure Investment Plan will continue to improve services across Wrexham and Wales for many years to come.”