Spring Budget: Wales

Virginia Crosbie Excerpts

Wednesday 29th March 2023 Westminster Hall

[Virginia Crosbie (Ynys Môn) (Con)]

Prynhawn da. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Hollobone, in this important debate. I would like to say congratulations—llongyfarchiadau—and put on record my thanks to the UK Government for a Budget that is good news for my constituents on Anglesey, for Wales, and for the UK.

Before the Budget was announced, the Finance Minister in the Labour Government in Cardiff stated that:

“The Chancellor has the powers to…ease the challenges being experienced by households and businesses”,

and to

“support those most vulnerable—including practical actions to support people with energy costs, housing needs and welfare benefits.”

The Chancellor delivered. The energy price guarantee was kept at £2,500. There were new childcare plans to help working-age people get back into work, with 30 hours’ free childcare for children aged from nine months to four years—in England, at least; I understand there is still some doubt about what Wales will do with its share of the funding. I hope the Minister will enlighten us in his closing remarks. There is a new universal support scheme to help disabled people who want to work to do so, worth up to £4,000 per person.

Housing is a devolved matter. However, the Labour Government in Cardiff could have used some of their £155 million underspend, instead of always asking UK taxpayers for more and more money. I am delighted that the Chancellor delivered way more for Welsh people in the spring Budget than would have been delivered under the relatively low aspirations of Labour.

[Liz Saville Roberts]

The hon. Lady raised the matter of housing. It is worth considering the local housing allowance, the perimeters of which are set by the UK Government. Does she share my concern about a constituent of mine at Aberllenfenni, who faces an increase of £150 month in rent set by her landlord? No more can be paid in local housing allowance, because that is set at a lower level, at 25% of private rents. Does she agree that that should be raised by Westminster to 30%, to support people in private rental arrangements?

[Virginia Crosbie]

I thank the right hon. Member for her intervention. My concern is that Labour in Cardiff should be building more homes that people want, in locations where they want to live, including for young people starting off their life.

In addition to delivering the day-to-day support that people need with the cost of living crisis, caused by Russia’s illegal war against Ukraine, the UK Government have delivered hope, and a promise of long-term prosperity in Wales. We need to grasp that with both hands and work together for the benefit of the Welsh people. We have seen what working together in a constructive way means for Wales. It means a freeport on Anglesey, with 13,000 new jobs and £1 billion in economic investment.

The Budget is an example of how this Conservative Government are investing in Wales, and levelling up communities both north and south. Families across north Wales see that the UK Government, rather than the Labour one in Cardiff, are supporting the region with long-term investment and good-quality jobs. I was delighted that £20 million for the refurbishment of the Holyhead breakwater was announced in the Budget. That investment in a vital piece of infrastructure is important if we are to keep Holyhead from flooding, and are to attract new investment to the port—the second busiest roll-on, roll-off port in the UK. That follows the announcement of £17 million from the levelling-up fund to regenerate Holyhead town centre.

The funding will attract new investment and good-quality, long-term job opportunities for local people across the whole island. It will give Ynys Môn a new lease of life, and turbocharge the island’s economy. My island has one of the lowest levels of gross value added in the UK, with high levels of temporary and seasonal work. Every year, we lose young people, who move in search of decent employment elsewhere. My dad had to leave Wales to find work. These investments will ensure that other young people do not have to leave Wales. The UK Government are investing to protect our island’s communities and our Welsh language.

It is the nuclear energy announcements in the Budget that will have the greatest long-term impact on the people and economy of Ynys Môn, and across the whole of north Wales. That point was highlighted when the Chancellor mentioned Ynys Môn in his speech. Earlier this month, I wrote a letter to the Prime Minister, co-signed by 57 of my right hon. and hon. Friends, asking him to push ahead with Great British Nuclear, and to make new nuclear energy part of our green taxonomy. The steps the Chancellor took in the spring Budget underline the Government’s commitment to our long-term energy security and net zero. With energy independence and jobs in new nuclear, alongside renewable energy production, this country can become a more prosperous and balanced economy.

The Budget was overwhelmingly positive for nuclear in the UK: there was the launch of Great British Nuclear, and the labelling of nuclear as environmentally sustainable in the green taxonomy. It was also great to hear the Chancellor’s commitment to nuclear providing a quarter of Britain’s electricity. That means a massive ramp-up of new nuclear projects on a scale that we have not seen for a very long time. What does that mean for Wales? It means opportunity. GBN will make the delivery of new nuclear projects, including in Wales, much more efficient, enabling us to build vital new stations more quickly than ever before.

[Wayne David]

I welcome the announcement by the Government on Great British Nuclear, belated though it is, but does the hon. Lady think it is certain? If so, perhaps she would like to say on what date nuclear on Wylfa will be given the go-ahead.

[Virginia Crosbie]

The last time a nuclear power station was invested in and built was under a Conservative Government. As the hon. Member will know, we have a huge energy statement tomorrow in the Chamber; I would not want to pre-empt what the Minister will say.

GBN means jobs and investment in areas that are calling out for them, including my constituency of Ynys Môn. I want good jobs for hard-working people—jobs that support Welsh communities—and nuclear can deliver that. Wales can be a centre of energy innovation. In the Budget, we learned of plans for a small modular reactor competition. There is already a long list of companies looking to Wales to house these game-changing stations, which will help decarbonise not only the power grid, but energy-intensive users in the heavy industry sector. We need these projects to come to Wales, but of course we need to attract investment.

Giving nuclear the green label will drive crucial investment. Nuclear has the lowest life-cycle carbon intensity, lowest land use and the lowest impact on ecosystems of any electricity source, according to the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. If that does not attract investment, I do not know what will. Wales has a world-class site in Wylfa and Trawsfynydd at its disposal. It is essential that we make the most of those sites; it would be a huge missed opportunity if we did not. Over the next decades, there will be a significant ramping up, with new nuclear projects across the UK, facilitated by Great British Nuclear. Wales can and should be part of these plans, and the Budget was a big step forward, but there is much to do.

This Budget has delivered for Wales; it is way more than the hand-to-mouth support that the Labour Government in Cardiff asked for. It has paved the way for long-term sustainable growth and employment in Wales, for levelling up parts of Wales that have seen little interest or investment from Cardiff in the past 20 years, and for an economic revolution in Ynys Môn.

[Beth Winter (Cynon Valley) (Lab)]

It is clear from the evidence provided by the Welsh Government that we receive substantially less funding via the levelling-up fund than we did as a member of the EU. The Minister for Economy quoted a figure of £1.1 billion less. What does the hon. Member have to say about that?

[Virginia Crosbie]

That is simply not the case. I will highlight the way that north Wales has been treated by Labour. In the past six months, it has been deprived of one of the two bridges connecting it to the mainland. It has seen abject failures in the devolved health service, and suffered over 700 job losses with the closure of 2 Sisters in Llangefni. While Labour MPs sit there and complain about our Budget, let us look at the actions their own Welsh Government, in co-operation with Plaid, have taken to support my already deprived community through these challenges. They have refused to compensate the businesses that suffered significant losses as a result of the closure of the Menai suspension bridge—a closure that, I hasten to add, resulted from failures in its maintenance programme. They stalled on funding a much-needed GP co-location in Holyhead, which would have helped people who have struggled for years with a health board that is in and out of special measures. With their £155 million underspend, they could have stumped up the funding for some of those 700 people who lost their job at 2 Sisters in Llangefni to travel to another plant and continue working for a few months. They chose not to.

The only reason why Labour MPs are unhappy is because they cannot face the fact that the UK Government are delivering on their promises to the Welsh people in a way that Labour has abjectly failed to. I commend the Budget and the difference it will make to people across Wales, particularly in my constituency of Ynys Môn. Diolch, Mr Llefarydd.

[Mr Philip Hollobone (in the Chair)]

I call Beth Winter.