Is Wales missing out on billions?

Local TV

From HS2, to the ‘outdated’ Barnett Formula, politicians in Wales have been calling for fair funding for Wales for some time. With a Senedd Election coming up in just six months time, parties may now finally be looking at making it a priority for the people of Wales.

Transcript

00:01Everything was promised to Wales at the last general election.

00:03It was supposed to be two Labour governments working together on either side of the M4 for the people of Wales.

00:09But what's happened really has been anything but that.

00:11There's been calls for Alina Edmorgan to use her voice within the Labour Party as the First Minister of Wales

00:16to work with the UK government on things like fair rail funding and more radical changes for Wales.

00:23Plaid Cymru argued that that hasn't happened at all.

00:25An HS2 funding, which Wales has yet seen a full £0 of, would be coming to Wales in the form of a few billion pounds.

00:33Plaid's leader, Srinap Yorwer, says the UK government is taking Wales for granted and not giving us what we deserve.

00:38Last week, the UK Rail Minister, Peter Hendy, gave evidence to the Senedd in which he appeared to confirm

00:45that the UK Labour government has no intention of giving Wales the billions it is owed from England-only rail spend.

00:52When pressed on what he said in 2023, that something is amiss with how the Barnet formula is applied to HS2 spend,

01:00Mr Hendy gave this astonishing reply.

01:03At the time I made my previous comments, I wasn't a minister in the government.

01:07Now I am, he said.

01:09What happened to principles?

01:11Was the First Minister as staggered as I was when she heard Lord Hendy's comments?

01:15Look, I will always stand up for Wales. I think there is and was an injustice when it came to rail underfunding.

01:24I'm glad that the UK Labour Party has started to correct that injustice, but let's be clear, it is just a start.

01:34You might have heard of a thing called the Barnet formula, which is basically the way that Wales is funded.

01:37It's a complex algorithm which figures out the pound per head numbers spent by the UK government in England

01:42and gives an amount to Wales based on the per head figures here.

01:47It's massively controversial.

01:48Many have said that it's severely outdated and Wales doesn't get a fair share because of it.

01:53Updating the system has been a priority for many politicians in Wales,

01:57but Plaid's leader says any changes might have been thrown out the window recently.

02:00Mr Hendy told Senedd members that, and I quote again,

02:04I can't comment about any changes to Barnet because, as far as I'm aware, none are currently proposed.

02:12Isn't Neil Lawson right, in his article on the death of Labour in Wales in the New Statesman this week,

02:18that Labour now stands for orthodoxy, caution and the establishment,

02:23that people are desperate for change and that Plaid Cymru is the face of that progressive change for Wales?

02:29On Friday, it was agreed in a meeting with the Finance Secretary

02:34that there would be work to improve the Barnet formula by the relevant UK government official minister

02:46and we need to make sure that we move together to make sure that there is an understanding,

02:52not just with the UK government, but obviously, as it is the Barnet formula,

02:56we will have to have an agreement with Scotland and Northern Ireland as well.

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