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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