Clwyd West MS and Shadow Minister for North Wales, Darren Millar, has called on the Labour Welsh Government give North Wales a fair share of investment.
In Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for North Wales and Transport, Ken Skates MS, in yesterday’s meeting of the Welsh Parliament, Darren said North Wales has been missing out for years and it is time to rectify the unfairness.
Asking the Cabinet Secretary what action he is taking to ensure that North Wales gets its fair share of investment from the Welsh Government, Darren said:
“Local government settlements are usually worse in North Wales. We're seeing a lack of investment in our road infrastructure in North Wales. You're building new hospitals in South Wales, but not in the North.
“That is the record of this Government, and we look to you as an incoming Cabinet Secretary, representing a North Wales constituency, to change that.
“The UK Government has its levelling-up agenda, and it wants to level up across the whole of the UK, including North Wales.
“We need a Welsh Government to have a levelling-up agenda within Wales, but that is not the reality, is it, because let's take the disparity, for example, between spending in North and South Wales, just on the metro projects. The South Wales metro has been awarded in excess of £1 billion by the Welsh Government, and has a set of major infrastructure projects elsewhere in South Wales that are well under way. In the North, the metro project there has been allocated a mere £50 million and road schemes have been cancelled.
“Now, even when accounting for population differences, South Wales is still getting more than five times the investment per capita - five times - than North Wales. That is not good enough, is it, Cabinet Secretary? What are you going to do to address that gross unfairness?”
Speaking after the meeting, Darren said:
“The North-South divide, perpetuated by the Labour Government in Cardiff Bay, has never been worse.
“Whether it is investment in roads, metros or town centres, North Wales always seems to play second fiddle to the South.
“It is totally unacceptable that Labour ministers should treat the region in this way.
“We need legislation to ensure that all parts of Wales receive their fair share of investment from the Welsh Government, not just those areas favoured by the Labour Party.
“It is simply wrong for the Labour Government to continue to favour its southern heartlands rather than spread funding for more equitably across Wales.”
