[Killer Whale]

Hmmm... Most of the South Wales Metro funding came from either Wales or the EU. Westminster's not going to be paying the EU share of that kind of thing again. Not when it can build a railway from London to Birmingham and pretend that it's an EnglandandWales project.

[Tubby Isaacs]

It is an England-Wales project though, because rail isn't devolved to Wales like it is to Scotland. There's no such thing as an England rail project. Admittedly the impression given by Labour in opposition that a load of Barnett consequentials were due was, to say the least, not very helpful.

Wales is more like a more powerful metro mayoralty than Scotland. There's about £200m from Westminster for the South Wales Metro, you're right, a small proportion.

[Killer Whale]

The problem with 'Englandandwales' is that we've got 5% of the rail infrastructure and historically 1% of the investment. Which is why we had to stump up for the South Wales Metro out of the Barnett block grant, with obvious knock-on effects for the NHS and Social Care budgets.

[Tubby Isaacs]

That's all distorted by HS2, or rather the most expensive and complex bit of it being built. I'd say there are good reasons for this being treated as a special case. Take it out and you get, well, still a figure that's too low. The current figure in the Comprehensive Spending Review isn't great either. There are some what were briefly called leveling up funds that should be available to replace the EU money.

The Welsh Government has certainly tried very hard with development, and deserves far more credit than it's got. Not just the SW Wales metro, the A465 is an excellent project. I believe that was to be UK funded before Cameron and Clegg cancelled it.