Boris Johnson the London Mayor has
called for devolved taxation for London, a first step to borrowing powers no
doubt. The Westminster Government, the Scottish Parliament and the Northern
Ireland Assembly are able to borrow to invest funds in large infrastructure
projects. Yet, we in Wales have no borrowing powers despite having law making
powers, a situation that is both untenable and unjust in my opinion. The
failure to include anything about borrowing powers in the pending Wales Bill,
is a real lost opportunity and
perpetuates the constitutional status quo.
In the modern world, despite the
banking crisis, whether we like it or not governments borrow, the real argument
should not be over borrowing powers, rather about what infrastructure schemes
that our government in Cardiff wants to invest in and whether they deliver
value for money. A variety of dubious
expensive infrastructure projects have been touted from time to time as
providing the justification for having borrowing powers including the
exceptionally poor value for money and environmentally destructive M4 Relief
road.
The hair brained M4 relief road
across the Gwent levels would come in at around £1 billion pounds plus and
would provide few realistic medium, let alone long term benefits, as it is a
short term solution. Amongst the reasons why the
option of the M4 relief road (South of Newport) was dropped relatively recently
a few years ago; aside for the financial cost (around £1 billion pounds) and
environmental impact was the key issue of the funding model. Ministers were
advised that not only would the new relief road to be subjected to tolls, but so
would the existing M4 would also be tolled.
Interestingly
enough the only other toll road in the UK is the M6 in the Midlands which has
seen toll prices increase by 175% since it was opened. Another reason why this
option was dropped was because of evidence gained from the operation of the M6
toll road - which had never made any money because motorists can avoid it by using
nearby non tolled motorways. That M6 tolled Motorway has seen the number
of users drop and it has done nothing to reduce congestion.
It is simply
unacceptable for motorists to end up paying tolls on the Severn bridges, on the
existing M4 any potential new relief road. There are already significant
complaints about the cost of the tolls on the Severn bridges and an additional
burden on motorists and businesses can no way be justified. A far more
realistic financially viable longer term fix to the problem of the exiting M4
would be to upgrade the Southern Distributor Road – something that would offer
a realistic more easily accessible alternative route in the event of any future
M4 blocking accidents.
This solution would not only provide an alternative route to
the M4 in the event of periodic accident related closures and congestion but
would provide much better value for money coming in at around £300 million. If you are going
to spend what is in effect public money then the bottom line is that you need
to work it hard and maximise every benefit and every gain for the tax payers
who will end up paying for it one way or another. With more powers come greater
responsibilities and with them both
should come greater public accountability and transparency on the part of
government when it comes to financial choices .
