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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Lilian Greenwood)
It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Mr Betts. I congratulate the right hon. Member for Aldridge-Brownhills (Wendy Morton) on securing this debate about the future of Aldridge train station. I also congratulate the hon. Members for Strangford (Jim Shannon) and for Wokingham (Clive Jones), who used the opportunity to raise important issues pertinent to their constituencies. I know that the hon. Member for Wokingham would like my thoughts about extra car parking spaces at Twyford station; I regret that I shall have to ask my colleagues in the Department and perhaps my officials to write to him about that, as I had not prepared notes on Twyford for today's debate.
I share the right hon. Lady’s enthusiasm for the delivery of new rail infrastructure enhancements such as a new station at Aldridge, and I recognise the wide array of transformative benefits that they can bring. Railways can create jobs, spur economic growth, promote decarbonisation via a modal shift from road to rail, and generally enhance people's quality of life by helping them to get easily from A to B. The magnificent new University station in Birmingham, which opened at the start of the year, has already facilitated millions of journeys and is a shining example of how infrastructure can transform lives and stimulate growth. That is backed by early passenger survey results, which show that nearly 90% of passengers rate the new station as “good” or “excellent”, and nearly 20% would have taken their journey by car if the new station was not there. I am sure she agrees that those are worthy goals, and she is right to advocate for the delivery of similar schemes in her constituency that can unlock such benefits.
I completely understand the right hon. Lady’s vision for passenger train services serving her constituency for the first time in a long time. However, it is in that spirit of wanting to complete transformative transport enhancements that difficult decisions have been made. As she knows, in 2022 the Conservative Government allocated £1.05 billion of city region sustainable transport settlement funding to the West Midlands combined authority, or the WMCA. The money was devolved to the WMCA, led by then metro mayor Andy Street, to spend on its local transport priorities. The WMCA set out its priorities for a programme of investment, which the Department for Transport supported and which included an allocation of £30 million towards delivery of a new railway station at Aldridge.
Time passed, and in July 2024 the West Midlands combined authority presented a paper to the Department outlining cost pressures across its portfolio of projects. As the right hon. Member knows, there has been significant inflation since 2022, and it is not unique to the West Midlands combined authority that cost pressures have arisen in the delivery of infrastructure projects. The cost gap presented a material risk that schemes already in construction would be left unfinished. The combined authority proposed reallocating funding that was allocated but not ringfenced from schemes not in construction, including Aldridge railway station, to those in delivery to ensure that they were completed.
I am happy to share with the right hon. Member which schemes have been prioritised. The schemes that have been assisted with the funding, reallocated as she described, include Rail Package 2, which is delivering three new stations—Moseley, Kings Heath and Pineapple Road—on the Camp Hill line between Kings Norton and Birmingham New Street; the Wednesbury metro depot; certain sections of the Sprint phase two priority bus corridor; the Dudley Interchange, which is a new bus station at Dudley; and the Wednesbury to Brierley Hill metro extension and a further extension on to Merry Hill. Also included is the Birmingham Eastside metro extension, which serves Digbeth and will serve the HS2 Curzon Street station.
A number of other programmes have been deferred as a result of those schemes needing to be prioritised. I can assure the right hon. Lady that while improving bus services is an important issue, including in the West Midlands, the funds are not being redirected and used for the purpose that she suggests might be the case.
The West Midlands combined authority proposed retaining £3.6 million to complete important ongoing design and business case development work for Aldridge station. As the right hon. Lady knows, projects need to go through a process to secure final funding and move to delivery. At present, work is being done using that development funding to produce an outline business case for Aldridge railway station; then, a final business case will be needed. In any case, these are crucial steps to securing a decision to deliver. Work can still continue with that important development funding.
Wendy Morton
I hear what the Minister is saying, and I still hope she will answer some of my questions, but on that ongoing work, that money was part of the £30 million for Aldridge station. The Department and the mayor always fall back on the argument that the station is not under construction, but the work had started and it is ongoing. There is £3.6 million to do the preparatory work and ground work. I have spoken to Network Rail, and it is all teed up to do all of this. The Government have allocated £3.6 million, but I would still argue that that is part of the £30 million. I still do not understand why Aldridge train station was the one singled out to be pulled from all the projects.
Lilian Greenwood
A number of projects are in construction, and I have spelled out precisely which ones. The West Midlands combined authority wanted to ensure that those projects would be completed and opened, as significant spending had already been put into taking those into construction. As I have set out, Aldridge railway station has not yet reached an outline business case. It is not in construction, but that development funding—the £3.6 million—will be used to develop the work and ensure that it can go forward in the future. It is not the only project that has been deferred.
Wendy Morton
I will not make too many more interventions, but on the specific point about the project moving to the next phase and then into construction, does the Minister not accept that because the mayor and the Department for Transport have vired the money elsewhere, the money for the station’s construction is now gone?
Lilian Greenwood
I accept that the West Midlands combined authority had cost pressures and that it does not have sufficient funding to complete all the projects that were set out in its original plan to the timetable that was envisaged. The right hon. Lady is correct that the money has been reprogrammed to be used on other projects, but that does not mean that the railway station cannot be delivered in the future. Other deferred programmes include part of Sprint phase 2, the Hagley Road rapid transit development and the cross-city bus programme. I know that will be unwelcome news.
The request was made in July this year, and in September my Department approved the West Midlands combined authority’s recommendation. I stand by that decision, although I understand the right hon. Lady’s disappointment that schemes not yet in construction, including Aldridge railway station, will not be delivered to the timescale originally planned. The £1.05 billion originally allocated by the Conservative Government to the West Midlands combined authority has not been reduced; the West Midlands combined authority has, with our approval, reallocated the way that the money is being spent so that it can finish the job on schemes that are in flight. I am confident that we are aligned on the benefits that transport enhancement can bring, and that is why we cannot afford to leave schemes unfinished. I understand the right hon. Lady’s concerns, but that is the decision that the West Midlands combined authority sought for us to take, and we have allowed it to proceed in that way.
As the right hon. Lady says, the West Midlands combined authority’s portfolio of transport enhancement schemes was established and signed off under the previous West Midlands mayor and under a Conservative Government. However, cost escalations and delays to the programme also occurred during Mayor Street’s tenure, and under a Conservative Government. I am committed to ensuring that the schemes in delivery, which were named in the previous mayor’s manifesto, and which the right hon. Lady campaigned for, are delivered. I believe that with her advocacy and the leadership of the current metro mayor, Richard Parker, who I know is ambitious for the West Midlands and its transport network, the future remains bright for Aldridge railway station. With its £3.6 million of development funding, design work and business case development continue at pace.
My Department is undertaking a review of the previous Administration’s spending plans, and once that is complete, we will confirm future funding allocations. By carrying out that essential pre-delivery business case and design work, the West Midlands combined authority is ensuring that Aldridge station is well placed for delivery funding, as and when more money becomes available. The right hon. Lady’s work with the West Midlands combined authority and her constituents to advocate for the scheme is the best way of ensuring that there is a strong local consensus behind it and increasing the chances of it being funded in the future, as and when funds become available. If and when Aldridge does get delivered, in combination with the new stations being built at Willenhall and Darlaston, we could see the number of stations in the Walsall area double from three to six, which is a hugely exciting prospect for her constituency and the wider region.
I am ambitious for the future of Aldridge and the West Midlands, and I urge the right hon. Lady and the West Midlands combined authority to continue developing plans to ensure that we deliver better transport infrastructure, which supports economic growth, jobs, decarbonisation and improved quality of life for the travelling public of the West Midlands.
Question put and agreed to.