What does Reeves’ review mean for Wales?

Local TV

We’re exploring what impact Rachel Reeves’ recent spending review means for the people of Wales. Not everything announced has any impact at all for us on this side of the Severn bridge, so we’re taking a look at what does and what doesn’t matter to us. We also hear from a Welsh politician about why the current funding model is outdated.

Transcript

00:00On Wednesday, Rachel Reeves announced the first multi-year UK government spending review since

00:172021. It's not a budget, but it does highlight where funding will be allocated across the United

00:22Kingdom for time to come in the future. It's well into the billions, and while there are

00:26millions of pounds coming into Wales as a result of a lot of the announcements, it can often

00:31be a little misleading, and much of what is part of the review doesn't directly affect

00:35Wales at all. One of the major announcements that does affect Wales is rail infrastructure,

00:41which the UK government says is £445 million over the next 10 years, including some additional

00:46funding on top of that. Other elements to the announcement, though, do not directly impact

00:51Wales, especially issues regarding the NHS, education, and other elements. This is because

00:56it's the Welsh Government in the Senedd who have responsibility for those issues.

01:01Devolution is an incredibly complicated situation. The major points like the NHS, education, housing,

01:07the environment and culture are all the explicit responsibility of the Senedd, but wider issues

01:12like defence, policing and immigration are all the responsibility of Westminster. That's

01:17relatively straightforward in itself, but it gets particularly complicated when it comes

01:21to areas like transport and, to a lesser extent, taxes. There's a joint responsibility depending

01:26on what you're looking at. That's why things like spending reviews or UK government budgets

01:31can be difficult to navigate, and the blame and praise for those decisions can often fall

01:35on the wrong shoulders.

01:38In terms of this budget, NHS funding to a small extent can affect Wales because any money England

01:43gets, Wales gets a proportional amount based on population. Similarly in education and housing,

01:48a system called the Barnet Formula. The decision making, though, has nothing to do with Westminster.

01:55One of the major implications is rail funding. The UK Government have responsibility for the

01:59infrastructure, like rail lines, so that £445 million is real money that Wales will receive

02:05from the budget.

02:06In October, I announced funding for the Trans-Pennine Route upgrade, the backbone of rail travel in the

02:12north, linking York and Leeds and Manchester. And today I can announce a further £3.5 billion

02:19of investment for that route.

02:21You might be able to hear billions there with a B, while Wales is set to receive millions

02:26with an M, something the Plaid Cymru MP Ben Lake says falls well short of what Wales deserves.

02:32The statement simply failed to deliver much on the promises that we were given. And in a

02:36Welsh context, we were promised significant investment in our rail infrastructure. We were

02:41also promised that this government, this new Labour government, would seek to right the

02:45wrongs of a historic underinvestment in our infrastructure. And unfortunately, they fell

02:49very, very short of that. And what we have in the end is £45 million per year for the next 10 years,

02:55which by any measure is inadequate.

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