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Welsh Government urges Chancellor to speed up delivery of £14 billion rail pledge, as current funding covers just 1% of Network Rail's spend across England and Wales.

• Welsh Government urges Chancellor to speed up delivery of £14 billion rail pledge, as current funding covers just 1% of Network Rail's spend across England and Wales.
• Cabinet Minister for Finance Elin Jones also presses UK Government to act on the cost of living, public spending and investment in Wales ahead of the Autumn Budget.
• Finance Minister: "Wales has waited long enough. This budget is the UK Government's chance to show it's serious about delivering for our communities."

The Chancellor is finalising the Autumn Budget, due to be delivered on 28 October. Ahead of the Budget, Elin Jones has written to the Chancellor as part of the Welsh Government's commitment to stand up for Wales and demand fairness from Westminster, including a fair deal on funding, investment and opportunity.

The proposals include:

• Rail: bringing forward £1 billion of the existing £14 billion rail investment commitment to accelerate improvement projects across Wales.
• Cost of living: targeted support for struggling households, including unfreezing Local Housing Allowance rates to prevent people falling into homelessness and protecting Cynnal, Wales's child payment, from tax and benefit deductions to ensure families benefit from some extra breathing space and to support our efforts to reduce child poverty.
• Public spending: reversing real-terms cuts to Wales's day-to-day and capital budgets.
• UK Government investment: backing major projects including the decarbonisation of Pembrokeshire Power Station.

Cabinet Minister for Finance Elin Jones yesterday said:

Wales has waited long enough. This budget is the UK Government's chance to show it's serious about delivering for our communities.

Right now, just 1% of Network Rail's spending across England and Wales is going towards our railways. That's not good enough. The UK Government has committed to invest £14 billion to address the historical underfunding of Wales’ railways and I want to see that promise turned into action, starting with this budget.

Families across Wales are still feeling the squeeze, and I want the Chancellor to go further to help them, whether that's through housing and energy support or protecting the payments that matter most to families on the lowest incomes.

Wales already makes a strong contribution to the UK economy, and investing in our future will help deliver the Prime Minister's own ambition to spread prosperity and opportunity to every part of the UK. This budget is the moment to match that ambition with action.