Wales sold short on 'National' infrastructure plan
29/11/2011
Barnett Consequential announced is a fraction of total spend
Plaid Cymru have criticised the implementation of the UK ‘National’ Infrastructure Plan after it was revealed that only £216m of the £30bn scheme would definitely be invested in Wales.
The scheme, which is based around Plaid Cymru’s Build for Wales programme announced earlier in the year, will see government funding combined with external funding from pension funds to finance capital investment projects.
However, a question from Plaid Cymru Westminster leader, Elfyn Llwyd, to George Osborne saw the admission that only the Barnett consequential of UK government spend would necessarily come to Wales.
Mr Llwyd said:
“I strongly welcome the principle of the ‘National’ Infrastructure Plan – it was a Plaid Cymru policy to support jobs and growth at the recent Welsh election.
“I also welcome the Barnett consequential to Wales of £216m for capital spending that we will have in Wales over the coming years as a result.
“If used wisely then this could produce strong benefits for Wales in replacing part of the 40% capital spending cuts made by the three London parties.
“However, this is only scratching the surface of the £1.5bn that we should be expecting to be spent in Wales through these schemes.
“Plaid Cymru gave Wales an advantage through proposing these ideas nine months ago, well before the UK Government had even considered it, but that has been wasted by the inaction and indecision of the Labour government in Cardiff.
“Now our competition across the border are ahead of us in planning for these investment projects.
“With our economy generally faring worse than that of England, we need to make our own luck and advantages, not hope for handouts from the Chancellor.
“The money that we do have from this should go into capital investment and helping businesses in Wales to grow and create jobs – especially to help young people into work.”
1. Plaid Cymru put forward ideas before the Welsh election for a ‘Build for Wales’ programme during the Welsh election where a not for distributable profit company could be established which would specialise in managing infrastructure projects and the built environment, taking advantage of historically low rates of interest to borrow on the market, and investing this in capital projects, such as improvements to hospitals, schools and roads.
This was a result of plans from both Labour and the Con-Dem government in London to slash capital investment in Wales by more than 40% during this current spending period until 2014/15.