A view from Carolyn Thomas – Welsh Labour’s North Wales Member of the Senedd
Wrexham.com has invited the four North Wales Members of the Senedd to write a monthly column with updates on their work. You can find their updates – along with contributions from the Wrexham and Clwyd South MPs and MSs – here.
In this month’s column for Wrexham.com, Welsh Labour MS Carolyn Thomas writes:
This week saw the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, travel to Manchester to announce that the second phase of the HS2 rail project would be cancelled.
The second phase of the works was due to reach Crewe, and because of this, the UK Government made the ridiculous claim that it was an ‘England and Wales project’, therefore removing their liability to provide Wales with up to £5bn in consequential funding.
The scrapping of Phase 2, and therefore the removal of the links to Manchester and Crewe, has completely blown a hole in this already incredulous position. The closest HS2 will now get to Wales is Birmingham. This is now indisputably an ‘England only project’.
Even on the basis of the Phase 1 works already carried out, Wales should be due £2.23bn in consequential funding. This amount of money could be transformational for Welsh public transport, but still it is being deliberately and cynically withheld.
We were told Wales wouldn’t be given billions of pounds in HS2 consequential funding because HS2 was going to Crewe (!!).
Now, the closest it will get to Wales is Birmingham – so, when will Wales be getting our £2bn @RishiSunak? https://t.co/q9m7LjxhDx
— Carolyn Thomas MS / AS (@CThomasMS) October 2, 2023
Instead, we were told that £1bn, just half the amount Wales is owed, would be provided to electrify the North Wales mainline. But just a day after this was announced by Rishi Sunak, his Secretary of State for Wales, David TV Davies, was forced to admit that £1bn wouldn’t actually be enough to do the job.
Given the debacle with HS2, and the general propensity with which the UK Government breaks its promises, it is difficult to believe that this pledge to electrify the North Wales mainline will ever materialise.
A day is a long time in politics..
Yesterday: Sunak scraps HS2 Phase 2, saying that £1bn will electrify the North Wales mainline instead.
Today: the Welsh Secretary admits £1bn isn’t enough!
North Wales deserves better than a rattled UK Govt making up policy on the hoof.
— Carolyn Thomas MS / AS (@CThomasMS) October 5, 2023
In the unlikely event that it does happen, Wales will still have been shortchanged by more than £1.2bn – a vast sum of money which could be put to use improving public transport links across the country.
This funding could be used for investment in much needed maintenance and improvement of existing lines, including flood resilience, the Wrexham Gateway redevelopment and getting freight off at Padeswood.
This deliberate and politically motivated underfunding of Wales is reprehensible – the UK Government is supposed to represent the whole of the country, but instead they are intent on holding Wales back.”
As a Member of the Senedd for North Wales, I’m here to help you with any issues that you might have. Please email me on [email protected], call my office on 0300 110 0176, or visit my website: www.carolynthomas.wales
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