Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:38 pm on 26 May 2021.
I thank Jayne Bryant for that and concur with what she said about the investments the Welsh Government has already made—the £70 million to secure additional services, rail services, between Ebbw Vale and Newport. And I'm very pleased to see that agreement has now been reached on extending on-demand fflecsi buses to cover the whole of the Newport city local bus network. And that's been funded by revenue and capital provided in partnership with Newport City Council. And that will play an important part in providing that local public transport network to which Jayne Bryant referred.
But as she will know, the major recommendation of the Burns review was for proper investment in the main rail line, to create new commuting possibilities that would serve the people, not just of Newport, but of Cardiff and further beyond. Now, the Hendy review—the union connectivity review, set up by the Prime Minister—published its interim report on 10 March. It pointed to the success of transport devolution, and amongst its first recommendations are that the UK Government take up that recommendation from the Burns review, and provide the investment that is needed to make that rail network an effective way of moving people across south Wales.
Now, I make a serious point to the leader of the opposition, that, if the UK Government genuinely wants to demonstrate its commitment to union connectivity, then here is an idea that is ready for it to take up—an idea developed in detail by the Burns commission, endorsed in the Hendy review and ready to go, and if the UK Government really is serious in investing in every part of the United Kingdom, to provide connectivity across the union, and I have no reason to say that they are not, given that the Prime Minister set up the Hendy review, that, when Hendy makes his final recommendations in the summer, this will be a big moment to see whether the UK Government is going to do more, as Jayne Bryant said, than simply talk the talk, but put the investment into making sure that the people of south Wales are served by UK investment in the way that both Burns and the Hendy review have now set out.