Barnett Formula: Wales

Debate between Lord Brennan of Canton and Lord Wilson of Sedgefield

Wednesday 12th November 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Wilson of Sedgefield (Lab)]

I think it is fair to reiterate to the noble Lord what I have already said: Wales is receiving a massive uplift in its budget via the Barnett formula. It is the biggest increase since 1998, and I think we should welcome that. As I said earlier, we are looking at the Barnett formula again, with the devolved Administrations, to find other ways we can improve it and make it work better.

[Lord Brennan of Canton (Lab)]

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Wigley, for whom I have a great deal of respect, neglected to mention, when he talked about the report A Decade On: Reforming Wales’ Fiscal Framework, recently published by Cardiff University, that it described tax devolution and the extra needs-based formula that was negotiated by Mark Drakeford as Finance and First Minister as an “unequivocal budgetary success”, because it has added £1 billion by 2027-28 to the Welsh budget. However, while making that point, I also emphasise to my noble friend the Minister the need for extra flexibility on borrowing. I very much hope that will come out of these discussions.

[Lord Wilson of Sedgefield (Lab)]

I thank my noble friend for that question. I like to think that all the avenues of approach he has mentioned will be looked at and discussed at the ministerial meeting at the beginning of next year. It is also important to point out that there is direct funding to Wales, which includes 160,000 workers in Wales who have benefited from a direct pay rise due to the increase in the minimum wage and the national living wage.

European Union (Referendum) Bill

Debate between Lord Brennan of Canton and Lord Wilson of Sedgefield

Friday 22nd November 2013 Commons Chamber

[Kevin Brennan]

My hon. Friend referred to amendment 70. Is not one of the problems with that amendment the fact that the Secretary of State would be responsible for producing the report? Given that when my hon. Friend remarked on the dangers of investors withdrawing from Britain, Conservative Members shouted “Rubbish”, could we trust a Conservative Secretary of State to produce an independent report? Would it not be better for the report to be produced by an independent body?

[Phil Wilson]

My hon. Friend makes an important point. We need an independent report to prove why staying in Europe is vital.

Let me finish my comments on Nissan by giving some other statistics. Nissan has said that if the UK leaves the EU its export potential to Europe would be hit by 10% tariffs on exports of vehicles and 5% on components. That is a company worth consulting before embarking on a Bill, the contents of which will cause four years of uncertainty for the UK and the north-east economy.

Nissan might be 20 miles away from Stockton South, but the Hitachi Rail Europe factory is even closer. It started its construction phase this month in Newton Aycliffe in my constituency, which is adjacent to Stockton South. The president of Hitachi, Hiroaki Nakanishi, said on 10 October while speaking in Tokyo about the UK’s relationship with the EU,

“any exit…could lead to less investment”.

He also said:

“The UK should be a member of the European Union from the standpoint of our operations”,

and went on to say:

“For Japanese businesses, the UK and the Continent are very complementary”.

Rather worryingly for my constituents and, I should have thought, for those of the hon. Member for Stockton South, Mr Nakanishi also said Hitachi

“would have to reconsider how to manage our total railways business”.

Alistair Dormer, the chief executive officer of Hitachi Rail Europe, was reported in The Northern Echo on 5 November as saying:

“We regard Europe as potentially our biggest market and we should not want anything to happen that would damage the relationship and put up barriers, we should stay in”.

Hitachi’s investment will bring train building back to the north-east of England, initially creating 730 jobs with 3,000 more potentially in the supply chain. As I said, the construction phase of the factory started this month. The Secretaries of State for Transport and Business, Innovation and Skills were at the launch on 1 November.