Found: Q3 Lord Burns: Good afternoon, Governor.

Found: 3 pm Watch the meeting Members present: Lord Wood of Anfield (The Chair); Lord Agnew of Oulton; Lord Burns

Found: meeting Members present: Lord Wood of Anfield (The Chair); Lord Agnew of Oulton; Lord Blackwell; Lord Burns

Found: Clause 59 LORD LEIGH OF HURLEY BARONESS FINN 146_ [Withdrawn] LORD BURNS BARONESS FINN LORD SHARPE

Found: LORD BURNS BARONESS FINN 147_ Leave out Clause 59 Member's explanatory statement This amendment would

Found: LORD BURNS BARONESS FINN 147★_ Leave out Clause 59 Member's explanatory statement This amendment

Found: LORD BURNS LORD YOUNG OF COOKHAM VISCOUNT THURSO BARONESS HAYMAN 23_ After Clause 1, insert the following

Found: after elections are held for the House of Commons.” 11 House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill LORD BURNS

Found: Clause 59 LORD BURNS BARONESS FINN BARONESS COFFEY BARONESS CASH 217_ Clause 59, page 86, line 24

Found: Clause 59 LORD BURNS BARONESS FINN BARONESS COFFEY BARONESS CASH 217_ Clause 59, page 86, line 24

Media APPG
Wednesday 11th June 2025

Found: Lord Clement-Jones; Sir William Cash MP; Nic Dakin MP; Lord Low; David Duguid MP; Lord Holmes; Lord Burns

<p>Well, can I thank the Member for his question? There's nothing really new in anything that's been raised today on this matter. The UK Labour Government, however, has, for the first time, acknowledged that there is significant underinvestment—historic underinvestment—in our railway network, and the £445 million extra was a down payment on that. Now, the reason that the Government was able to assign that level of funding to Welsh rail infrastructure was because over the years, in spite of austerity, we were able to fund and take forward numerous schemes around what Lord Burns had recommended, to ensure that they were shovel ready, to ensure that we could proceed with the planning consents, that we could proceed with the detailed plans, and then get them either delivered within a single spending period, or enable them to draw down additional funds through future spending periods. And that's what we've been hearing from the Chancellor, that's what we've heard from the Secretary of State for Wales, from our own First Minister, that this is only the beginning in addressing that historic underfunding.</p>
<p>Why do I say it's only the beginning? Because the projects that are contained within the agreed pipeline, an agreed pipeline between us and the Department for Transport, amount to, in the short term, £1 billion, and the £445 million will unlock the first major components of that investment, and then the longer term pipeline amounts to more than £4 billion at today's prices. I should just add, though, that when it comes to HS2, essentially you get Barnett consequentials once the money has been spent or allocated, and so the consequential that we should have expected to date is in the region of £350 million. By the end of this financial year, the Welsh Treasury estimates it to be around £431 million. So, it is very clear that the new UK Government is investing where other Governments refused to, making good the promise to address that historic underinvestment in the Welsh rail network.</p>

<p>Yes, I'd very much like to meet as soon as possible to discuss the potential of the link road.&nbsp;I think it's vitally important that such a piece of infrastructure is reflected as a priority within the regional transport plan as well, and I believe that there is still an opportunity for members of the public to influence that important plan, because from next year, we're going to be devolving decision making and funding for local transport matters to the region, and therefore having the priority set out in the regional transport plan now is vitally important. And of course we're working very closely with national highways and with UK Government Ministers to minimise disruption whilst that weight limit is in force for safety reasons.</p>
<p>Can I just put on record, in regards to the work of Lord Burns, my thanks to him and also to Professor Simon Gibson, who carried out an enormous amount of work to get the five stations to such an advanced business case position? There is strong support both here and at Westminster for the five new stations, and I don't believe we could have done any more to influence UK Treasury. So, we now await the comprehensive spending review next week. Meanwhile, we are also awarding local authorities in South East Wales almost £50 million this year to take forward transport priorities across the region.</p>