Businesses in Wales are right to call for electrification to be extended into the country.

Electrification of the Great Western route into Berkshire and Oxfordshire was a surprise survivor of the cutbacks, with many assuming it had been sacrificed for other capital projects, not least Crossrail.

But the extension to Swansea, announced under Labour, was deferred to scale back costs and the DfT is still saying ‘no decision has been made’.

Investment in such vital infrastructure now will help grow the economy in South Wales, bringing jobs and cutting worklessness, and pay for itself many times over by improving links with the M4 corridor and London. Mr Hammond, no enemy of business and a man who understands economics, should realise this and authorise
the project.