JESS Morden, MP for Newport East, writes in her monthly South Wales Argus column:

Last week the Government announced that it would be proceeding with the HS2 rail project.

Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the HS2 project will require a combined 2 million tonnes of steel, including steel for tracks, train components, bridges, tunnels, gantries, wire and more. This means that there will be huge procurement opportunities for steel producers across the UK – including here in South Wales.

As a co-chair of the All Party Steel Group, I’ll be working with other steel MPs, trade unions and steel companies to call on the UK Government to ensure that high-quality UK steel products are used for HS2 wherever possible. It’s crucial that ministers use this opportunity to give our steel industry the vote of confidence it needs and deserves.

More News:

Skenfrith residents urged to evacuate

Footbridge collapses into River Ebbw

People move signs and cones to drive through floods

I will also be calling on the UK Government to look to Newport-based train builder CAF Rail UK to produce the trains needed for this major infrastructure project. Train production has been up and running at the site in Llanwern since 2018, and I’ve been fortunate enough to visit the factory and see some of the exceptional units being built for West Midlands Trains and Northern.

The company have received great support and investment from the Welsh Government, and already employ a skilled workforce of around 250 people, which is set to grow to 300 in the near future. CAF have the potential and capacity to produce trains at the cutting age of modern rail technology, and which offer high-speed travel at speeds over 360km an hour. This makes CAF a perfect fit for HS2, and winning the contract for this major project would provide a real boost for our local economy.

It’s vital that the UK Government acts to ensure that Wales benefits from HS2. As the First Minister Mark Drakeford has rightly highlighted, the announcement to proceed with the project does bring the Tory Government’s historic under-investment in Welsh rail infrastructure investment into sharp focus.

Wales accounts for 11 per cent of the UK rail network, yet since 2010 we have only received 2 per cent of rail enhancement spending. In the meantime the UK Government has cancelled electrification to Swansea, and blocked the Welsh Government from providing much-needed additional cross-border services which would benefit my constituents who commute from Newport and Severn Tunnel Junction to Bristol. This disparity in investment needs to be addressed urgently if the Prime Minister’s pledge to ‘level up the nations and regions of the UK’ is to be seen as anything other than grandstanding bluster.