Transport (Investment)

Debate between Lord Foster of Bath and Lord Hammond of Runnymede

Tuesday 26th October 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hammond]

I assure the hon. Gentleman that all schemes will be objectively appraised and that I do not always take the word of my officials; I ask to see the underlying data and business case, and I shall continue to do so.

[Mr Don Foster (Bath) (LD)]

The Bath transportation package is now in the development grouping. Some aspects of the scheme are unacceptable to many people, including me, but I stress to the Secretary of State that modest Government support would deliver in Bath £2.5 billion of public investment, the largest brownfield development site outside London, 7,000 new jobs and 2,500 new homes. When he is judging what constitutes the best case for success, will he assure me that he will include the potential for economic growth?

[Mr Hammond]

Indeed I can. As I made clear in my statement, potential for economic growth is one of the key priorities in allocating funding. I am also aware that many schemes do not have 100% support for the currently proposed solution in the communities that they serve. Where there are ideas about how a scheme might be differently presented and how costs might be taken out in order to make a scheme more attractive and thus significantly more likely to secure funding, the Department will be interested to hear about them in the course of the process.