Mystery Over North Wales Growth ‘Plan’, ‘Deal’ or ‘Talks’

Today’s Budget hints at a unspecific boost for North Wales, with some politicians including the Chancellor himself saying it is just ‘talks’, with the Secretary of State for Wales calling it a ‘deal’.

The plan was mentioned during the Budget by Chancellor George Osbourne as he was talking about a billion pound deal signed yesterday for Cardiff, plus plans for a ‘city deal’ for Swansea. Mr Osbourne went on to refer to ‘talks’ on ‘growth deal for North Wales.

MP Stephen Crabb, Secretary of State for Wales, referred to it as a ‘deal’ in this tweet earlier, whereas the Red Book itself was less committed in its phrasing noting “Opening the door to a growth deal for North Wales”.

Growth deals for N.&https://t.co/uCkFwKVpcz, Severn Bridge tolls slashed, & massive support for Welsh business and families #Budget2016

— Stephen Crabb (@scrabbmp) March 16, 2016

The Red Book with the full detail of the Budget often gives further detail, however searching for information only gave two mentions, including the following:

Earlier we had spotted just three references online to such a “North Wales Growth Plan” on two news sites and Mr Crabb’s own twitter. We asked local Conservative Candidate Andrew Atkinson if he could give any more information or detail on what it is all about, however he said, “let me come back to you”.

We will update when we have the detail.

So Cardiff gets a signed £1bn deal yesterday, ‘talks’ on 'city deal' for Swansea and again just ‘talks' on 'growth deal for north wales ‘ 😕

— Wrexham.com (@wrexham) March 16, 2016

As those following our twitter feed on here will know we were retweeting others and tweeting ourselves through the budget – you can catch up in our archive. Local MP Ian Lucas (who starred in PMQ’s earlier) was also giving his own commentary from the House of Commons chamber itself, with some tweets more blunt than others:

Who wrote this tripe?

— Ian Lucas (@IanCLucas) March 16, 2016

We also noticed the expected specific business rates bonus for newspapers to help them in a struggling industry. This is likely going to help both NWN/MOJO (publishers of the Leader) and Trinity Mirror (Daily Post), both of whom have offices over the border, with the former even managing to get David Cameron in their Chester office during the election campaign.

For those who enjoy such things the below has two links, first to the entire PDF ‘Red Book’ of the Budget, and the second a quick listicle from HM Treasury on what else was announced today:

The Budget 'Red Book' is up online now : https://t.co/cAOYwj4x6Z along with a listicle TLDR summary from HM Treasury https://t.co/563iUXlphI

— Wrexham.com (@wrexham) March 16, 2016