HS2: Delay

Lord Kennedy of Southwark Excerpts

Friday 10th March 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Davies of Gower (Con)]

I am not in possession of that information. I will ensure that my noble friend gets an answer to her question. There will be an update in May, and it is quite possible that the answer will be contained in that.

[Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Lab Co-op)]

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord for being here today, but it is obviously disappointing that we have not got the Minister here. It is partly, I am sure, because of the way this was handled in the first place, with the announcement last night, which was not, as the noble Lord acknowledged, the best way to do things. Has the noble Lord seen the comments from the National Infrastructure Commission, headed by Sir John Armitt, from John Smith from GB Railfreight, and from Henri Murison from the northern powerhouse, who described the decision as “half baked”, “disappointing” and “a false economy”? Will the noble Lord comment on those remarks?

[Lord Davies of Gower (Con)]

I have not seen the comments, but I accept that it is disappointing. We have had difficulties with the supply chain and there are now difficulties going forward for contractors, I fully accept that but, no, I have not seen those comments—but I am not surprised they have been made.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Davies of Gower (Con)]

I suspect that some work has been done in the department on the demographic profile, but I am not in possession of it at the moment. On the redesign and the social environment, again, the Government will probably have looked at this together with the contractors. I cannot be more specific than that, but I imagine that this is quite a high priority.

[Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Lab Co-op)]

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord for being here today. We very much appreciate his coming to the House and the position that he has been put in, but could he arrange for a proper Statement to be made to the House and perhaps get the noble Baroness, Lady Vere, here to answer Members’ questions? That said, I thank him very much for being here today.

[Lord Davies of Gower (Con)]

I am very grateful to the noble Lord; I will certainly take that back to the department.