Wellington and Cullompton railway stations approved

The opening of two new railway stations has been given the go-ahead by the government. Stations in Wellington, Somerset, and Cullompton in Devon will be funded by money allocated in the government's spending review.While Chancellor Rachel Reeves did not specifically mention the stations in her speech on Wednesday, the Treasury has confirmed to the Local Democracy Reporting Service that funding would be given to the projects.Gideon Amos, MP for Taunton and Wellington, said he was "absolutely delighted" with the announcement.
Wellington lost its station in the Beeching cuts of the mid-1960s.A project to reopen it was among dozens of transport schemes shelved last year because of financial pressures.But the council and developer West of England Developments (Taunton) Ltd. continued to prepare the site for the station's return.Access to the new station, which will be built off Nynehead Road, will be provided via a new development of 200 homes, which secured outline planning permission from Somerset Council last year.
The approval of Cullompton's new station, which will be built near the existing M5 services, comes on the back of agreements being signed in March to build a new relief road for the town.Mr Amos said the combined Wellington and Cullompton stations project had already received £6.15 million to complete the full business case and most of the design work.It is estimated an investment of about £45m will be needed to fully construct and delivery both stations. The government has not yet confirmed how much funding it will be providing for the project in the spending review.A Treasury spokesman said: "The spending review provides funding to support the reopening of stations at Wellington and Cullompton. Further details will be set out shortly."Mr Amos added: "If there is a need to raise further funds that is something we will look at with Somerset Council and Wellington Town Council but we'll have to wait and see the details."

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

BBC News

3 hours ago

• BBC News

Life Factory contractors angry over unpaid work 'worth thousands'

Contractors who worked on a £2.89m government-funded renovation project have said it is "disgusting" they have not been paid for all their to create a community space at The Life Factory in Glastonbury paused in 2024 after Somerset Council had concerns about its progress and stopped releasing funds to Red Brick Building Centre, which was responsible for the BBC understands about 15 creditors are awaiting payment, including one who claimed he is owed about £380,000. He described the impact as "catastrophic".Somerset Council said the situation was "regrettable", while the Red Brick Building board said it had been liaising with creditors to "work out what to do". Keith Jackson is director at TML Building Services, which was contracted by Beckery Construction Company (BCC), a subsidiary of Red Brick, to carry out structural works at The Life told the BBC he had not been paid since January 2024 and claims he is owed about £380,000 for work, including removing the floor and roof."We never knew the project was in trouble until a halt was called," he said."Why can't we be paid for the work we've done? Why should we suffer for other people's incompetence?"He said the situation had a "terrible effect" on his company."We haven't got any finances," he explained. "We've got several jobs we could go to, but we don't have the money to go. "We owe other subcontractors a considerable amount of money, but also it's taken our future away." Funding to develop the community and learning space was awarded to Red Brick Building Centre, a social enterprise, under the Glastonbury Town West Audit Partnership (Swap) is looking into what went wrong. In a report, it said it had "no assurance" sound governance or financial controls were in place at Red Brick Building or Somerset also found "no evidence" of a plan to deliver the project "within budget, scope and on time".The report said BCC was set up to keep costs down, but confused the relationship between parties which lead to a communication breakdown, poor governance and a lack of also found standard HR procedures were not followed at BCC, including around sub-contractor recruitment and timesheet records. 'Huge strain' J&E Construction SouthWest was also contracted by BCC to renew the internal floors and roof structure of The Life director Tom Popham claimed he is owed a significant sum in unpaid invoices. He said the situation put a "huge strain" on him, but a loyal client base and his other business meant he was able to pay his contractors and suppliers. However, he said the company is now facing "slow growth"."We haven't got the money in the bank that we used to," he added. He described the council's decision not to release more funds as "disgusting". "I have lost all faith in Somerset Council," he said."I do think they [the council] should settle up if we can prove what we've done." Somerset Council said: "It is deeply regrettable this is having an impact on local contractors with legitimate claims, but we are not contractually responsible for any payments to them."It added the Swap report confirmed the council's concerns about the project and made it "clear" it "cannot release further payments".In a previous statement the council's chief executive Duncan Sharkey said the authority accepted its monitoring of the project "could have been strengthened". A new board started operating at Red Brick at the end of 2023 and its chair Indra Donfrancesco said it is "heartbreaking" contractors have not been paid."There hasn't been a day in this last year where we haven't been trying to work out with them what to do," she added."It is absolutely devastating on every level."A statement from the new Red Brick board said the previous leadership set up BCC in 2022 to manage the scheme and appointed a full-time project manager. It claimed there were "serious" procedural and reporting "failures" and said: "In hindsight, both Red Brick and Somerset Council lacked the capacity to provide proper oversight".Ms Donfrancesco said the previous Red Brick board should have had more of a "financial forecast" of where money was going, what the project would look like and the contractors involved. John Capper, one of two former directors of BCC, said in a statement that Red Brick's board signed the funding agreement and so responsibility lies with said the project manager, who was also a BCC director and full-time employee of Red Brick, was "managerially responsible" for the project's delivery and the "reporting and adherence" to procedures."He reported on a regular basis to the Red Brick board as overseers of the project," Mr Capper said that, during his time as a director, "no concerns" were raised by the council or Red Brick board regarding the issues in the Swap report."However, I did raise my own concerns with the Red Brick board and the Somerset Council officer, which is the reason why I left," he Poizer, the other BCC director and the project manager, declined to comment until the audit process is complete. What now? Ms Donfrancesco said the new board will work with the council to try to find a way to satisfy the funding agreement."Should an alternative viable plan for regenerating the derelict building come to fruition over the coming months, the remaining funds could still be released," she audit work continues. A Swap report found a considerable sum is due to be paid to contractors and creditors, but said the amount was unconfirmed as some costs could be ineligible and some invoices are in a recent council meeting, auditors described the work as complex and could not give a timeline as to when it will be complete.

The Guardian

3 hours ago

• The Guardian

Rich Americans flock to apply for New Zealand's ‘golden visas' after rules relaxed

Wealthy Americans are leading the charge in applications for New Zealand's 'golden visas' after rules on applying were relaxed. New Zealand's coalition government in February loosened the requirements for its Active Investor Plus visa – commonly known as the golden visa – offering residency to wealthy foreigners in a bid to boost the flagging economy. The new rules, which came into effect in April, lowered investment thresholds, removed English-language requirements and cut the amount of time applicants must spend in the country to establish residency from three years to three weeks. Immigration New Zealand says the scheme has attracted 189 applications, representing 609 people, under the new rules. Prior to the changes, the visa attracted 116 applications over 2.5 years. Nearly half the investors who have applied hail from the US, representing 85 applications, followed by China, 26, and Hong Kong, 24. Residents from countries across Asia and Europe make up the rest of the applicants. 'Nearly everyone who is applying is applying because of the changes they're seeing under the Trump administration,' said Stuart Nash, a former Labour party minister, who now runs Nash Kelly Global, an immigration and relocation consultancy. Under the new rules, 149 applied under the visa's 'growth' category, which requires a minimum $5m investment over three years, and 40 applied under the 'balanced' category, which requires a minimum $10m investment over five years. Immigration has approved 100 applications in principle and seven have transferred their funds – netting New Zealand $45m. There has been a significant increase in interest in the visa since the changes, with investors drawn to New Zealand's stability and innovation in sustainable business and technology, said Benny Goodman, New Zealand Trade and Enterprise's general manager for investment. 'This is a rare combination, and one that deeply resonates with investors thinking about legacy, not just returns,' he said. Global instability makes New Zealand – with its stable democracy, independent judiciary and safe banking system – an attractive destination, particularly to Americans, Nash said. 'We are seeing more people looking for a safe haven than a tax haven – and that's what we have got here in New Zealand, Nash said. It is not the first time New Zealand has attracted the interest of Trump-weary Americans and other wealthy foreigners seeking to make New Zealand their 'bolthole' at a time of societal division. Following Trump's 2016 election, visits to the country's immigration website rose almost 2,500%. After the supreme court decision removing abortion rights, New Zealand's immigration site visits quadrupled to 77,000. After Trump's 2024 election win, New Zealand's property market saw a surge of interest from the US. Meanwhile, billionaires acquiring residency or citizenship in New Zealand have been subject to political controversy in the past. In 2017, news broke that Peter Thiel, the billionaire co-founder of PayPal, was granted citizenship despite spending only 12 days in the country, prompting former Labour prime minister Jacinda Ardern to tighten the rules on investment visas and foreign home ownership in 2018. The loosening of the visa rules is one of a number of Ardern-era policies the right-wing coalition has wound back in its bid the boost the economy. Earlier this year it relaxed other more restrictive visa settings to attract so-called 'digital nomads' to New Zealand. New Zealand's economy suffered as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and the country experienced the biggest contraction in GDP of any developed country in the world in 2024, due to high interest rates and unemployment. In a statement on Monday, economic growth minister Nicola Willis said so far the visa could represent 'a potential $845 million of new investment in New Zealand business'. 'New investors don't just bring their dollars to our shores, they also bring skills, knowledge and experience that will drive future economic development,' Willis said. 'It's a win-win.'

The Independent

3 hours ago

• The Independent

‘The world is cutting foreign aid – but there is a better way to tackle the climate crisis'

In 2023, some $52 million (£38 million) was invested in a groundbreaking solar power plant in Sierra Leone, which is set to increase the East African country's electricity supply by 30 per cent. In a separate project, a power utility called Weza Power was set up in the West African nation of Burundi, which aims to bring grid power to 70 per cent of the country's population, up from a current rate of 12 per cent. Some £21.8m was also spent building warehouses across Nigeria, Kenya and Uganda, giving 200,000 small-scale farmers access to storage solutions that will help them bring their crops to market. All of these projects are united by the fact that they have been funded by British International Investments (BII), the UK's development finance institute. Little known outside of global development policy circles, BII is a key driver of the UK government's foreign assistance and climate interests, and is committing to keep being so, even as much of the rest of the world retreats. The quango was founded in 1948 with a mandate to 'do good without losing money' – and since then has created an estimated one million jobs around the world, and provided around 26 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa with access to clean energy. Between 2014 and 2023, BII received about £4.5 billion from the UK overseas aid budget, which translates to around 4 per cent of the aid budget total over that period. The organisation is unlikely to receive any additional funds from the UK government over the next five years as Keir Starmer's government implements cuts to aid funding – although it is confident it can continue with its work successfully using existing resources. The investment-focused model of BII allows for its impact to have a far larger ripple effect than such headline funding would suggest. 'There are two sides to the ODA [overseas development assistance] coin: traditional donor-based ODA, and the investment side. We fall squarely on the investment side,' says BII CEO Leslie Maasdorp, who met The Independent at the BII offices in Westminster. In all, BII has investments in over 1,580 businesses across 65 countries, with total assets worth £8.5bn. In 2023 alone, BII invested £1.3 billion pounds in projects around the world, with 61 per cent of that total invested in projects in Africa. Given that it is backed by the UK government, BII is happy to invest in projects for returns that are as low as 2 per cent, which is far lower than commercial banks will invest for. There is also a 'halo effect' around its investments, says Maasdorp, where the presence of BII encouraging more risk-averse financiers to think that a certain country is safe to invest in. 'A lot of countries in Sub-Saharan Africa are overlooked by investors. The big pension funds and asset managers don't have people on the ground in Nigeria, the DRC, or Sierra Leone, but we do' explains Maasdorp. 'There's also a lot more work that needs to be done to bring a project to a bankable stage, which we have a lot of experience in.' A large part of BII's investment focus is in countries known in financial circles as 'frontier markets': 'These are largely under-developed, and where access to capital is scarce,' says Maasdorp. 'We have a high risk appetite for these markets.' BII also invests in high-emitting, middle income countries in Southeast Asia and South Asia, where investments can make a 'major impact' on tackling emissions footprints, Maasdorp adds. BII is now also the UK's primary vehicle for the delivery of climate finance to developing countries: In 2024, it gave some $900m to climate causes, Maasdorp exclusively revealed to The Independent, bringing the organisations total over the past three years to $2.2bn A key focus for BII to that end is investing in energy access and renewables – and particularly so in Africa, where 600m people continue to lack electricity. Some 940m people also continue to lack access to clean-burning cooking solutions on the continent, which is a problem that raises environmental concerns over deforestation for firewood and health concerns over the risks related to polluting fuels, among other things. 'The one area that is the undisputed number one priority in the development agenda today is energy poverty,' says Maasdorp. 'In Africa, it is a number one priority. You cannot do anything without energy: factories, clinics, schools and hospitals all need power.' Maasdorp joined BII in October last year following a career that has spanned the New Development Bank – which is the Shanghai-based development finance institute of the BRICs – the group formed by Brazil, Russia, India and China. Maasdorp also worked for Goldman Sachs, Barclays, and held government roles in his native South Africa. He clearly has high ambition for BII: 'We are very proud to be the UK's leading vehicle for investment in climate, and we really see what we have invested so far as the floor, rather than the ceiling,' he says. At the same time, external forces would appear to be working against Maasdorp's ambition to increase financing. Earlier this year Keir Starmer announced that the UK will cut the UK's aid budget from 0.5 to 0.3 per cent of Gross National Income (GNI), which is believed to represent a cut in real terms of around £6.2bn. This is on top of significant cuts to aid budgets in other parts of the world, including from major donors like France and Germany, and a gutting of 87 per cent of programmes that had formerly been funded by USAID. BII's financing from the aid budget is agreed every five years, and the next five-year strategy period is to begin next year. While Rachel Reeves' Spending Review earlier this month did not go into sufficient detail to mention BII, current signals suggests that the government will struggle to inject fresh capital into BII as aid budgets are cut. Nick Dyer, director of global programmes in international development at FCDO, told the International Development Committee on 13 May that 'in a 0.3 per cent world I think that it will be difficult for us to provide any core funding to BII'. But a BII spokesperson more recently told The Independent that even if there is no new injection of cash from FCDO, BII will be able to maintain its current levels of investment, given that the past seven years it has made average returns of 5.1 per cent. 'The company has a self-financing model that delivers development impact and a financial return for the UK taxpayer. BII will continue to invest at its current rate,' the BII spokesperson said. Prior to 2016, there was a long period where BII was not topped up by the aid budget, so no new money is not unprecedented – though it will prevent BII from growing as much as it might have done. Maasdorp is clear that, even if the US is retracting from its climate commitments, with President Trump declaring his intention to remove the US from the Paris Agreement, climate will remain a priority for BII. 'It is very clear that climate will remain central to the mandate of BII,' says Maasdorp. That mandate currently holds a target of 30 per cent of spending on climate – but BII currently spends at 40 per cent. 'We recognise that there is an inextricable and interconnected relationship between climate and development, and development gains will be completely eroded if we don't also invest in climate,' he adds. Maasdorp nonetheless recognises that climate programmes face major funding challenges globally in the coming years. At the COP29 climate conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, which took place at the end of last year, the world set itself the challenge of boosting climate finance to $300bn (£224bn) a year by 2035. This target was already widely decried at the time as inadequate given the sheer cost of tackling climate change – but even so is now under threat due to the global retreat from development spending, believes Maasdorp. 'The ability of the developed world to meet such targets is becoming even more challenging,' he says. 'Whether certain countries will now step forward and increase their funding remains to be seen though it seems unlikely that the UK will be able to do so, at least in the short term, given the cuts north of £6bn that have been announced.' Where spending does come under pressure, Maasdorp believes that the investment-focused strategy of BII is a cost-efficient model to drive the UK's climate agenda as grant-based programmes come under pressure. 'A focus on investment helps encourage long-term sustainable growth in those countries, with governments able to use taxes that come in from companies to invest in education, healthcare, and clinics,' he says. 'That is a better legacy than what can be achieved with aid.' Maasdorp is among those who argue that rethinking the manner in which aid is designed and distributed is not necessarily a bad thing in some cases. This is because are countries around the world that have been highly dependent on aid for many years, but continue to record weak economic growth and development outcomes, which is a dynamic many people in the development world would like to shift. 'When I speak to policymakers, heads of state, and ministers of finance, everybody agrees that it is a good thing to try and end aid dependency, and for countries to take ownership of their development trajectory,' says Maasdorp. While Africa continues to face huge developmental challenges, it is also a continent of vast potential, with 70 per cent of its population under the age of 30, and seven of the ten fast-growing economies in the world in 2025. Foreign investment flows into Africa continue to pale in comparison to other parts of the world - but Maasdorp believes with innovative new financing models driven by organisations like BII, these dynamics really can begin to shift. 'We work with the government to improve the investment environment, and then we encourage other financiers to invest alongside us,' he continues. 'We believe we are at a sweet spot now where we can be a vehicle through which larger institutions can begin investing in Africa.'