Latest news with #ComprehensiveSpendingReview
Wales Online
11-06-2025
- Business
- Wales Online
Business Editor Sion Barry gives his verdict on Rachel Reeves' rail investment for Wales
Business Editor Sion Barry gives his verdict on Rachel Reeves' rail investment for Wales She confirmed £445m over ten years but is that the real figure? Rachel Reeves congratulated by the Prime Minister after delivering the Comprehensive Spending Review. (Image: PA ) In her Comprehensive Spending Review Chancellor Rachel Reeves made scant reference to Wales, but on addressing rail funding she was unequivocal. To cheers on her side of the House she said: 'For 14-years the Conservatives failed the people of Wales. Those days are over. Following representation from my right honourable friend the Welsh Secretary ( a smiling Jo Stevens) the First Minister for Wales (Eluned Morgan) and Welsh Labour MPs I am pleased to announce today £445m for rail in Wales over ten years. "That's the difference made by two Labour governments (London and Cardiff) working together to undo a generation of under-funding and neglect.' Hang on a minute £445m over ten years, did I hear that right? That would frankly be an utter joke and anualised at just £44.5m... cue incoming nukes from the opposition parties. With £80bn of rail enhancement projects in England identified up to 2040, and with Wales having around 10% of the England and Wales rail network, that would be a derisory settlement. It has been getting a rail enhancement allocation of less than 2% going back decades and under UK governments of different political colours. But what she should have clarified (and yes she had a lot to get through) is that around £300m from the ten year figure will be released over the next four years. Article continues below It also means that once projects are signed off - and we have yet to see the confirmed list - they will receive further tranches of funding in the next comprehensive spending review as they will take more than four years to complete. So, over the next decade investment in Wales should be significantly more than the £445m referenced by the Chancellor. What we now need to see is what projects will go into the Department for Transport's network rail enhancement pipeline for Wales over the next decade and potentially beyond. This is expected in the coming weeks. Once we have that, with capital expenditure assigned, it will be relatively easy to work out whether Wales is getting an equitable deal on rail investment or not. if it is getting a fair slice of projects deemed as Wales and England, then most people would be happy with that - although I believe there is still a strong case for rail to be fully devolved to Wales. So, until we have that definitive list, and whether that will include, as seems likely, the five Burns stations on the South Wales Mainline, it is like trying to complete a jigsaw without the picture on the box. Perhaps if it was' bright and shiny' then the UK Government would be announcing, as they done in England, headline grabbing Welsh rail projects with total costs running into billions and delivered over a number spending review periods. All that was mentioned by the Chancellor was the Cardiff West Junction project - needed to increase the number of trains per hour from the current two to four on the City Line that runs through Cardiff - with an estimated cost of £30m and work at Padeswood sidings in Flintshire, what will increase the number of trains able to run between Wrexham and Merseyside . In the £445m is a one off settlement of £48m for the Welsh Government for the devolved Core Valley Lines. Some £90m of the £450m is also be being kept back to effectively profile new projects that could be taken forward beyond the current four year comprehensive spending review period in a ten year rail plan for Wales. That leaves around £300m in the tank for non-devolved rail projects in Wales over the next four years, of which around £60m the Chancellor has signalled is already allocated for the Cardiff West Junction (on a section of the City Line that comes under Network Rail) and the Padeswood sidings projects. On the £48m for the Core Valley Lines, where the £1bn rail electrification project is nearing completion, that really isn't going to go very far. Some 100 kilometres of new electrified lines and infrastructure such as signalling, will require more maintenance work under so called operation, maintenance and renewal (OMR). In the process of the Core Valley Lines asset being devolved to the Welsh Government, Network Rail had initially put a fanciful book value on it running into tens of millions of pounds. If the UK Government were looking to transfer the asset say to sovereign wealth fund then fair enough, but looking to charge another government in the UK? They had seemingly forgotten that they were just custodians of a public rail asset paid for and maintained by the UK taxpayer - which of course includes those in Wales. The Welsh Government managed to agree a nominal sum of £1. However, the UK Treasury should have agreed an allocation in the annual block grant to the Welsh Government to fund the required OMR work on the Core Valley Lines. As it stands £48m over four years, and the Welsh Government has yet to confirm it will be deployed for that purpose, is far short of what is required. As well as a fairer OMR funding deal for the Core Valley Lines, the UK Government also needs to recognise, for Barnett consequential purposes, that this significant part of the rail network in Wales is devolved. That would provide a higher comparative figure for Wales which triggers the level of Barnet Formula consequentials the Welsh Government gets from an overall rise in DfT spending. For Wales the comparative figure is now just 33.5%, while for Northern Ireland and Scotland it is nearly 96%. What has been confirmed is a step in the right direction after years of rail underinvestment in Wales. The Wales Rail Board, has worked up a priority list of much needed rail enhancement projects for Wales. For them all to be realiised then Secretary of State for Transport, Heidi Alexander, will have to assign a bigger share of her departmental budget to Wales. Even if the £300m leverages additional funding in further spending reviews, and while yes a significant improvement, Wales should be getting a rail enhancement project investment of between £200m to £300m annually over the next 15 years to deliver up to £4bn of new rail investment. Article continues below What the Chancellor has announced will fall short of that.
ITV News
11-06-2025
- Business
- ITV News
Mayor concerned about lack of money for new infrastructure after Chancellor unveils spending review
The Mayor of London has welcomed the government's Comprehensive Spending Review 's investment in housing and Transport for London, but said he remains concerned about the lack of money for new infrastructure. Sir Sadiq Khan said: 'I've been determined to stand up for London, and it's good news that we have won extra resources for transport and housing. I have been campaigning for years for a multi-year deal for City Hall and for Transport for London, and I welcome this agreement. 'However, I remain concerned that this spending review could result in insufficient funding for the Met and fewer police officers. 'It's also disappointing that there is no commitment today from the Treasury to invest in the new infrastructure London needs. Projects such as extending the Docklands Light Railway not only deliver economic growth across the country, but also tens of thousands of new affordable homes and jobs for Londoners.' 'Unless the Government invests in infrastructure like this in our capital, we will not be able to build the numbers of new affordable homes Londoners need. 'As mayor, I'll continue to make the case to the Government that we must work together for the benefit of our capital and the whole country. 'The way to level up other regions will never be to level down London. I'll continue to fight for the investment we need so that we can continue building a fairer, safer and greener London for everyone.' The Chancellor Rachel Reeves laid out the government's spending plans for the next three years - showing us what the government's priorities are and shaping the direction of travel until 2029. The Institute for Fiscal Studies says the spending review 'could prove to be one of the most significant domestic policy events of this parliament.' Sir Sadiq Khan and King 'compared who is a bigger workaholic' The chancellor told MPs: "We are renewing Britain. But I know that too many people in too many parts of our country are yet to feel it. "This government's task, my task as chancellor, and the purpose of this spending review, is to change that." Reeves stressed the decisions made in the spending review are her decisions about the direction of government, concluding her speech by saying: "These are my choices, these are Labour's choices, these are the choices of the British people.' Shadow Chancellor Sir Mel Stride said "the chancellor has completely lost control", saying Reeves "will need to come back here in the autumn with yet more taxes, and a cruel summer of speculation awaits."
Wales Online
10-06-2025
- Business
- Wales Online
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set to promise Wales nearly half a billion pounds for rail
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set to promise Wales nearly half a billion pounds for rail An initial funding settlement of £445m for new rail projects in Wales will be confirmed by the Chancellor Rachel Reeves in the Comprehensive Spending Review Wales is getting a big rise in rail investment from the UK Government. (Image: Matthew Horwood ) Wales is to receive an initial down payment of at least £445m in the Comprehensive Spending Review to begin to address decades of under investment by successive UK governments in its rail network. Chancellor Rachel Reeves is expected to confirm that the money will be spent on new rail projects in north and south Wales, potentially such as the start of work electrifying part of the North Wales Mainline and up to five new stations between Cardiff and Magor, on the South Wales Mainline. The expected announcement follows intensive lobbying by the Welsh Government, representations made by Welsh Labour MPs and fierce criticism of historic underfunding by opposition parties. WalesOnline has also been campaigning to end the historic underfunding of railways in Wales. It's expected that the Welsh Government will welcome the new funding although some questions remain over how it will be divided up. And it is not known if there will be any commitment to provide fairer funding over the long term. The funding commitment expected in Wednesday's spending review is thought to include a sum of money that the Department for Transport will provide for Network Rail to spend on the track it manages in Wales. There will also be funding that has been requested by the Welsh Government for it to use to invest in the track it owns and operates in the Core Valley Lines, which was devolved to the Cardiff Bay administration so it could electrify it and create the south Wales metro. Article continues below WalesOnline has been campaigning to end second-class treatment of Wales' railways (Image: Marc White / WalesOnline ) We do not yet know how much of the £445m will be for the Core Valley Lines and how much the Department for Transport is committing for spending on the non-devolved rail network in Wales, which includes the South Wales mainline and the north Wales line. The Treasury will also need to confirm whether as capital investment it will be assigned over a four year or three year period. The announcement comes amid a major row over the lack of money coming into Wales as a consequence of major rail projects in England, like both HS2, which is costing over £60bn, and the East West Cambridge to Oxford line that is set to cost £6bn. A Labour Westminster source told WalesOnline there had been a concerted lobbying effort from MPs to persuade the Treasury to invest in Wales. Individual MPs had been lobbying for specific projects in their constituencies, but the group of MPs had also met with chief secretary Darren Jones to give their wish list and explain why it was important. Questions remain but this is a significant step - Sion Barry's analysis The Welsh Government is responsible for the cost of maintenance, repair and renewal (OMR) of the Core Valley Lines, which also includes the Coryton Line and part of the City Line , both in Cardiff. The Welsh Government's £1bn electrification of the Core Valley Lines is close to completion. So, what also needs to be clarified is what element of the direct funding for Core Valley Lines being allocated to the Welsh Government will be assigned to new rail enhancement projects, as opposed to any contribution to its OMR requirement. Maintaining existing rail infrastructure is expensive with Network Rail having a budget of around £42bn for England and Wales over the current five year spending period, with around £2.2bn assigned for the non devolved rail infrastructure in Wales Once the DfT commits to major projects, like the £16bn rail and bus investment in the Midlands and North of England last week, as they take more than three years to complete they will have to be funded for the long-term. Barring projects being scaled back due to unforeseen cost overruns or delays, the new level of funding for rail projects in Wales should be maintained over several comprehensive spending review period - even if there is a change of government in Westminster. Secretary of State for Wales Jo Stevens said that getting a fairer rail funding for Wales was her number one priority when taking up the cabinet role last summer. While questions remains on the split on the funding, and the level of rail enhancement investment on the Core Valley Lines, she has achieved what no other Welsh Secretary of State has been able to. The advisory Wales Rail Board, which includes various stakeholders such as the Department for Transport (DfT), the Wales Office, Transport for Wales, and the Welsh Government, has already drawn up a detailed list of priority rail enhancement projects for Wales. These come with a price tag of several billion pounds, including required investment to increase the number of trains per hour on the Coryton and City Lines to at least four an hour rather than the current two. There is also the plan to build more stations on the south Wales mainline with the hope of reducing congestion on the M4. The so-called five Burns stations are Cardiff East (off Newport Road), Newport West, Maindy, Llanwern, and Magor. In a phased investment programme, they will take around five years to complete. The stations were recommended by the Burns Commission, chaired by Lord Burns and commissioned by the Welsh Government to explore ways to boost public transport investment in south-east Wales. This followed former First Minister Mark Drakeford's 2017 decision not to proceed with a Labour Senedd manifesto pledge to deliver a £1bn M4 relief road south of Newport. The stations, with a combined construction cost of £320m, first require £15m for detailed design work and £50m to upgrade the relief lines from Bristol Temple Meads to South Wales to allow for passenger services. It will be a number of weeks before an announcement will be made on which rail projects in Wales will be able to commence following the comprehensive spending review settlement. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves will make the announcement after PMQs on Wednesday (Image: PA ) Former Welsh Government deputy transport minister Lee Waters said: 'This is a big number for Wales and is more than the Welsh Government calculates it would have had from a fair share of the HS2 project. Article continues below "Civil servants calculated that we lost out £431 in Barnett formula funding by the way the high-speed rail project was categorised by the Treasury. This £445 million makes good on that. "We will have to wait to see what exact schemes the Chancellor is agreeing to but that figure would allow the priority schemes that the Welsh Government and the UK Department of Transport had been working on to go ahead. "We now need to make sure we get a change to how funding works for rail so that this is the beginning of a pipeline of investment into the future.'
The Herald Scotland
10-06-2025
- Business
- The Herald Scotland
Aberdeen oil services jobs under threat as bidder eyes Wood
The 35p per share deal under discussion with Abu Dhabi-based Sidara would value Wood at around £240m. The outcome of Sidara's deliberations will be awaited anxiously by staff at Wood, which grew from a fishing business to become a leading player in the global market to help firms develop and operate oil and gas facilities. Wood employs 4,500 people in Aberdeen and the North Sea operations it runs mainly from the Granite city. The Put Up or Shut Up deadline for Sidara to make a firm offer has been extended three times since it made an initial approach in February. Sidara decided to scrap a £1.5bn bid to buy Wood in August last year citing concerns about geopolitical risks and financial market uncertainty. The group's decision to return to the fray indicated it saw significant value in the expertise offered by Wood. The company announced today that it had won a $2.8 billion (£2.1bn) contract to work on a gas processing plant in the United Arab Emirates. READ MORE: Scottish hydropower hopes fade as major projects face threats SNP Government oil hypocrisy shocking amid Scottish jobs cull Israeli-owned firm takes control of UK's biggest gas field However, Wood has faced big challenges in recent months. In February Wood issued a disappointing trading update and announced plans to slash costs to help reduce its debts. The company also revealed that an independent review of its key projects division had identified material weaknesses and failures in respect of financial culture, governance and controls. Wood subsequently delayed publication of its latest annual results until June 30 citing the timing of the conclusion of the independent review and the extensive work needed to conclude the audit of last year's numbers. Against that backdrop, Sidara has likely faced challenges in its efforts to decide on a valuation for Wood. The task has been complicated by uncertainty about the outlook for activity in the key North Sea oil services markets. Some firms that operate oil and gas fields have shelved plans to cut investment in new developments and upgrades following the increase in the windfall tax rate in the Budget in October. Chancellor Rachel Reeves has faced great pressure to reduce the tax burden on the sector in recent weeks while completing work on the Labour Government's Comprehensive Spending Review. The results of the review will be announced tomorrow. If Sidara decides to proceed to make a firm offer for Wood there will be mixed feelings in Aberdeen. Wood chief executive Ken Gilmartin has insisted the company can prosper as an independent. But he and other directors have said that if Sidara makes a formal offer on the terms under discussion they would be minded to recommend that Wood shareholders accept it. Sidara has said that it recognises and wants to retain the talent offered by Wood employees. There will still be concern in Aberdeen that jobs will be vulnerable as Sidara looks to maximise the return on any investment it makes. Meanwhile the loss of another stock-market listed firm would deprive Scotland of valuable professional services work and could leave the country struggling to interest international investors.
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Cumbria Chamber urges Government to back business growth in spending review
Fresh calls have been made for the Government to prioritise business growth ahead. Cumbria Chamber of Commerce has joined the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) and chambers across the UK to urge the Government to put business growth at the centre of its spending plans. The call comes ahead of Wednesday's Comprehensive Spending Review, which will set out the Government's budget priorities. Suzanne Caldwell, managing director of Cumbria Chamber of Commerce, said: "Wednesday's Comprehensive Spending Review will impact the future shape of our economy for years. "So the Government can't afford to get this wrong. "At the end of the day it's businesses that create wealth and growth in our economy. "So fundamentally the Government needs to put more time, money and effort into supporting business. "That's a downpayment on our future prosperity." The chambers have outlined a series of recommendations under three themes: Get Britain Thriving, Get Britain Working, and Get Britain Trading. These calls focus on improved investment in infrastructure, people, and international trade. Recommendations include funding for transport and energy projects, better grid connectivity, long-term support for Project Gigabit, and practical help for SMEs to adopt artificial intelligence (AI). When it comes to getting Britain working, the chambers want more Apprenticeship Levy funding redirected to the Department for Education to boost training, and a broader Youth Guarantee for 18- to 24-year-olds. The chambers want more employers to be involved in skills planning by extending investment in Local Skills Improvement Plans and addressing gaps in training provision. On trade, the chambers are calling for investment in 'digital trade', better export support for SMEs, and a stronger pipeline of overseas investment. The recommendations were developed through consultation between the 51 chambers across the UK, the BCC, and the BCC's Business Council. They are also backed by research from the BCC's Insights Unit, which gathered feedback from more than 5,000 businesses on the biggest barriers to growth. Ms Caldwell said: "If the Government wants strong and consistent economic growth, it has to look at three key areas. "It must promote consistent investment in people, in infrastructure and in trade. "If it provides the support businesses need to thrive, in an increasingly competitive and protectionist global market, then the future can still be bright."
