Wales will receive an additional £64.5 million as a result of UK Government funding allocated to Transport for London earlier this week.
The UK Government is committed to a four nations response to tackle COVID-19 and has so far announced over £7 billion of additional funding to the devolved administrations to support people, business and public services in Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. The total amount of funding provided by the UK Government to support the effort to tackle the coronavirus in Wales currently stands at over £2.2 billion.
This funding is in addition to the UK-wide measures that the people and businesses in Wales can access, such as the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, the Self-Employed Income Support Scheme and the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme.
Secretary of State for Wales Simon Hart said:
“Many transport organisations across the UK are facing hardship as a result of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, and those in Wales are no exception. While we are urging people to work from home where possible and only to travel when absolutely necessary, there are still those who need to travel to work and people need to be able to travel safely while respecting social distancing once restrictions are gradually lifted.
“While it is up to the Welsh Government to decide how to allocate this additional funding, key transport services require protection so they can support Wales’ economic recovery from COVID-19."
Rob Roberts MP for Delyn commented:
"I’m delighted to see an additional £64.5m coming to Wales as part of the Barnett formula allocation, taking the total to over £2.2bn in additional funding that has been sent by the UK Government in Westminster to the Senedd to assist with the fight against COVID-19.
"I echo the words of the Secretary of State in hoping that the funds are used in order to assist our transport services across North Wales which will help people to return to work when it is safe to do so and support our regional economy as we move out of the pandemic over the coming weeks and months."