A cross-party group of MPs has called for HS2 to be reclassified as an England-only project so Wales receives proportional funds - better late than never. They noted that the Westminster government's own analysis concluded the rail project would produce "an economic dis-benefit to Wales". The Welsh government and many people in Wales have long called the classification of HS2 as an England and Wales project "unfair and biased".
HS2 is a high-speed rail line planned to link London with Birmingham and on to Manchester and Leeds. The £106 billion project has been controversial after estimates that the Welsh economy could lose out due to inferior transport infrastructure.
Without a fair funding settlement, the Welsh government periodically receives a proportional top-up to the budget when new spending is announced for devolved areas in England which will not apply to Wales, through what is known as "Barnett consequentials". So now the MPs want HS2 to be reclassified as an England-only project despite rail infrastructure not being devolved in Wales beyond the core valleys lines.
The parliamentary select committee report noted that the Welsh government received "approximately £755 million in Barnett consequentials" between 2015 and 2019 as a result of the Department for Transport spending money on HS2, it will not receive a proportionate amount for HS2 because it has been classified by the Treasury as an "England and Wales project".
Understandably this has attracted criticism from the MPs because the rail line will run solely in England. The Welsh Affairs Committee said: "It is a project of unprecedented size and complexity and has already created several thousand jobs as part of a supply chain that spans the country, including Wales." The Committee reported that Wales would not benefit in the same way as Scotland and Northern Ireland from Barnett consequentials arising from the HS2 project.
The Westminster government's own analysis has concluded that HS2 will produce an economic dis-benefit for Wales". The Westminster government has said HS2 could "yield direct benefits to Welsh rail passengers if it is accompanied by enhancements to the North Wales mainline, including upgrades at Chester and Crewe stations which will be required for full electrification of the North Wales mainline to proceed".
The report also calls for a new Wales Rail Board of Welsh and UK government bodies to identify areas where Welsh railways could be improved and invested in. The MPs also have called on the Westminster government to bring forward proposals for greater connectivity between Swansea, Cardiff and Bristol by the end of 2021, calling the decision to cancel the electrification of the Cardiff-Swansea mainline "short-sighted and regrettable".
The group, chaired by Conservative MP Stephen Crabb, said if clear benefits for passengers and freight users could be delivered by transferring powers over rail infrastructure from the UK government to the Welsh government then "the case for further devolution would be compelling".
The Committee said "few benefits to rail users have been identified" and the benefits of "existing management arrangements are considerable". The Welsh government welcomed the calls to "address unfair and biased categorisation of HS2 as an England and Wales project, which continues to disadvantage rail investment in Wales".
A spokesman said their "long term objective remains full devolution of the rail network and a fair funding settlement for rail infrastructure in Wales". They said "irrespective of where responsibility rests in the short term" they supported "close strategic collaboration" to "meet passenger needs" and "support our decarbonisation commitments".
A spokesperson for the UK government's Department for Transport said: "We have already committed a record £1.5 billion to the Welsh railways in recent years and the recently announced Union Connectivity Review will look at how best to enhance transport links across the United Kingdom to improve connectivity." The Westminster government has argued HS2 will boost reliability, connectivity and capacity on routes across the UK, including services into Wales.
We certainly don't need "a new Wales Rail Board of Welsh and UK government bodies to identify areas where Welsh railways could be improved and invested in" - that would simply be another layer of arms length bureaucracy. Whats needed is for full control over the network (such as it is), the Network rail budget and resources (within Wales and the Marches) and Network rail priorities to be devolved to the Senedd as soon as possible.
Quite simply decisions about railway infrastructure development and spending need to be made here in Cymru / Wales, not in Westminster - as happens in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. A final thought - it is worth remembering that in 2005 powers over railways were offered to be devolved to Wales by the then Labour in Westminster government - the Labour in Wales National Assembly government, Labour in Wales simply said no thanks. What a pity…
