Tag Archives: political

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New partnership with Heathrow puts Wales on flightpath to growth

The Strategic Partnership will be signed in Cardiff by First Minister Carwyn Jones and Lord Paul Deighton, Chairman of Heathrow Airport Ltd, which marks the start of a close working relationship between both parties. 

Top of the agenda is ensuring Heathrow expansion maximises job creation in Wales. Set to be Europe’s largest privately-funded infrastructure project, an expanded Heathrow will need extensive support from UK manufacturers and SMEs to deliver the project on time and on budget. 

This partnership opens up new business opportunities in Wales as Heathrow, which invests more than £1bn a year at its site, wants to broaden its supply chain to support demand. 

The First Minister said: 

“This Strategic Partnership is very welcome and I am delighted the Welsh Government and Heathrow Airport will be working closely together for our mutual benefit. 

“It opens the door to explore a wide range of new opportunities particularly for our existing supply chain companies that have the experience and expertise to support infrastructure projects at Heathrow. I would certainly like to see a far higher percentage spend in Wales and the Welsh Government will do all it can to support companies in Wales to bid and win more business at Heathrow. 

“I am also pleased to announce that plans are already underway to host the first Heathrow business summit in Wales, where our supply chain companies will have the chance to meet and discuss opportunities with Heathrow’s procurement team. 

“It certainly marks a great start for this new relationship and there are very many other areas we are keen to explore with Heathrow Airport.” 

Heathrow Chairman Lord Paul Deighton said: 

“I want to ensure that every corner of Britain benefits from Heathrow expansion. This strategic partnership will bring us closer to Wales and help us to deliver an expanded Heathrow. 

“A new Heathrow runway will unlock up to 8,400 new skilled jobs and underpin up to £6.4bn in growth from construction through to increased tourism and exports for Wales. This new partnership is a sign of our commitment to ensuring Heathrow expansion delivers tangible benefits for every corner of Britain and we are looking forward to working closely with the Welsh Government and Welsh businesses to make it a success.” 

Areas of mutual co-operation and delivery identified in the Strategic Partnership include:

  • broadening and seeking new supply chain opportunities in Wales to help meet the operational objectives of Heathrow Airport
  • exploring the possibility of locating off site manufacturing logistic hubs in Wales to support delivery for the 3rd runway
  • explore the eligibility of funding for potential flights between Wales and Heathrow to be funded through the proposed Heathrow Route Development Fund. 

To encourage growth in its Welsh supplier base, Heathrow will host its first ever business summit in Wales on July 5th. Heathrow will bring its biggest suppliers to Cardiff City Stadium to welcome Welsh businesses of all sizes to one-on-one meetings providing a unique opportunity to secure contracts at the UK’s largest airport.  

Recognising the importance of connectivity in driving economic growth, the partnership includes a joint study into the benefits for Welsh businesses and tourists from reduced journey times. The agreement also confirms that airlines wishing to operate a route from Wales to Heathrow would be eligible to bid for start-up capital from the airport’s £10m route development fund.

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Welsh Government • •

“A £60 billion Brexit fund”?

I awoke to an odd headline yesterday in the Sunday Times. The Chancellor we were told is going to set up a £60bn Brexit fighting fund.

Fortunately the Chancellor’s own words in  the same newspaper said no such thing. It was a silly headline. The government is scheduled to continue borrowing a bit more each year up to 2020, beyond our likely date of exit. The additional borrowing each year is now well down on the peak rates of the previous decade, and will continue to fall this Parliament. All the time we are adding a bit to state borrowing we cannot create a fund out of tax revenues.

Nor did the Chancellor write that there can be no net increase in spending in the March budget. He acknowledged that growth has come in faster and the revenues higher than forecast in the Autumn Statement. He has pre announced more money for vocational training and hinted at more spending on social care. He of course states his wish to see continued progress this Parliament in cutting the deficit further but has not said he wishes to stop all new borrowing. He will have some options as the Treasury and OBR correct some of their forecasting mistakes from the Autumn.

The headline about a Brexit fund is doubly misleading. The sum involved just happens to be the sum the rest of the EU would like us to pay as an exit payment. That is why we must rush to explain to them there is no such fund, no such money, as well as telling them there is no liability for us to have to pay. Nor does Brexit require a special fund. The future path of the UK economy is going to be mainly influenced by interest rates, the performance of the US and global economy, world commodity prices and their impact on inflation, and by the balance of domestic fiscal and monetary policy. In other words after Brexit as before the main determinants of our performance will have nothing to do with whether we are in or out of the EU, just as our past performance clearly got  no visible benefit out of being a member  of the EU internal  market. Inflation is rising as many have predicted, but so far UK inflation has risen in line with US and German because it is led by world oil prices, not by the fall in sterling.

In the EU we experienced two great crashes. One was caused directly by EU policy when we fell out of the mad and dangerous Exchange Rate Mechanism and plunged into recession. The second, the Great Recession and banking crash of 2008-9 was a common crash in the USA, the Euro area and the UK brought on by similar Central Banking and commercial banking mistakes in all three zones. The EU did not cushion or ameliorate the problems, and then added their own twist of the recessionary knife with the Euro crisis that followed.

Let’s hope our authorities have learned from these bitter experiences so we have a good economic performance as we leave the EU. To do so we need interest rates that allow continued expansion without damaging the pound further, as the US hikes her rates. We need some relaxation of credit for good projects, home purchase and other affordable purposes in the private sector, and we need accelerated rates on investment in infrastructure to catch up with our needs.

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John Redwood MP • • •