Transport (Tees Valley)

Alex Cunningham Excerpts

Tuesday 10th February 2015 Commons Chamber

[Alex Cunningham (Stockton North) (Lab)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing the debate, which is crucial to Teesside and the wider Tees area. I appreciate that he is concentrating on rail, but the Tees Valley local enterprise partnership reminded us today that we have no major road network and are forced to rely on secondary roads such as the A19 and the A66, which impacts on our ability to attract jobs. Does he agree that, as well as direct rail routes to London with electrification on the lines, we need 21st-century roads, including another Tees crossing, if we are to serve Teesside properly?

[Andy McDonald]

I wholeheartedly agree with my hon. Friend, who is absolutely right. One glance at a road atlas will show the complete absence of blue roads—motorways. We need one or two of them in our region.

The industrial might of the Tees Valley is a key component of the north-east of England’s manufacturing prowess. London apart, our region is the only one in the UK that consistently makes a positive contribution to our balance of payments. We lead the way in advanced manufacturing and export-led growth.

Tees Valley’s integrated chemical complex at Wilton, Billingham and Seal Sands is the biggest in the UK and second-largest in Europe. It sits alongside the steel industry—two vital foundation industries side by side. The Tees Valley economy contributes significantly to the north. It contributes some £11.5 billion of gross value added to the national economy every year. We have a thriving digital and creative industries cluster, which grew faster than that in any other LEP area in 2014. We have a 280,000-strong highly skilled work force, and a small businesses base of more than 14,500 firms.

We also have the UK’s third largest port, Teesport, which provides an international gateway, distributing products across the country and abroad. As a contemporary sign of its vitality and importance, PD Ports has just signed a seven-year contract with Sahaviriya Steel Industries for the continued shipping of its steel products.

Our leading colleges, our universities and national knowledge centres are at the forefront of skills development and innovation. Tees Valley also has an international airport, albeit one that is crying out for investment and redevelopment—we look to Peel airports to better develop the airport services—and we have direct road and rail routes to key locations across the north.

There is a consensus on the importance of reducing the UK’s trade deficit and rebalancing the economy. If that is to be achieved, it is important that Tees Valley and its mighty industries play their full role. Exciting developments in the energy-intensive industries hold great potential for our region and our country. Strictly subject to the science being right and there being verifiable safeguards, hydraulic fracturing and coal gasification have enormous potential for our future energy and industrial requirements. There is not time this evening to go into the detail, but subject to those safeguards, the future could be truly exciting. The major beneficiaries from the syngas so derived are the energy-intensive industries, and none more so than those on Teesside.

I must mention the Teesside Collective, a pioneering infrastructure project comprised of a cluster of leading industrial players—BOC, Lotte Chemical UK, SSI and GrowHow—which offers a compelling opportunity for the UK to progress its industrial and environmental interests at the same time. Work is already under way for the development of a business case for deploying industrial carbon capture and storage in the Teesside cluster. It will be completed later this year. Tees Valley is in the right place at the right time to become the industrial carbon capture storage leader in Europe. It is therefore essential that the Government provide the necessary support that such key foundation industries need, which in turn will allow our manufacturing industries to compete on a global stage. Good rail and road infrastructure for freight and passengers is essential to all of that.

On 17 January, the Secretary of State for Transport attended the launch in Leeds of Transport in the North, a body of regional leaders tasked with drawing up and delivering a comprehensive programme of strategic investment to transform the north’s infrastructure, and helping to maximise growth. I argue that, if that particular body is to properly speak on the transport needs of the north, it is wholly inappropriate if Tees Valley does not sit alongside the five cities on the board.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Minister of State, Department for Transport (Mr John Hayes)]

I congratulate the hon. Member for Middlesbrough (Andy McDonald) on introducing this debate. He reminded me, as I am sure he will have reminded you, Madam Deputy Speaker, of Hegel. It was Hegel who said:

“Nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without passion.”

The hon. Gentleman’s passionate advocacy of the interests of his constituents and indeed of Teesside more generally certainly made an impression on me—and, I am sure, on other Members.

I do not disregard the significance of Teesside. I could hardly do so, given that when I was a Minister at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, the hon. Member for Hartlepool (Mr Wright), who has contributed to this debate, brought a group of business men from Tees Valley, who themselves illustrated, indeed personified, the very range of innovative industries that the hon. Member for Middlesbrough has described tonight. I am well aware of the character of the innovation taking place there and of the need to provide the right kind of transport infrastructure to support it.

I have a very long and impressive speech, but I shall not have time to deliver it. I know that that is a disappointment to you, Madam Deputy Speaker, and to the whole House. I shall, however, make a commitment to include anything I cannot cover in a letter that I will send to the hon. Members who have contributed to this evening’s proceedings. However, I would like to deal now with some of the specific points that the hon. Gentleman raised.

As I say, we recognise that effective transport plays a key role in stimulating growth across the country, creating a more balanced economy, connecting communities and enabling people to access jobs, services and leisure in the way described in the contributions we have heard. That is why we have determined to reverse the effect of some of the neglect in respect of infrastructural development that has characterised previous regimes. Members will be pleased to know that I am not going to be more partisan than that, but I wanted to make that point at the outset.

I know that the hon. Member for Middlesbrough will recognise and, I hope, acknowledge the importance of the road investment strategy that we have put in place. This is a long-term funded commitment, looking at the national road network in an innovative way, based on empirical analysis of the benefits we get from the money we spend. It secures both plans and money through to 2021. It is a £15 billion investment—probably the biggest road investment programme since the 1970s—and the north, including the north-east, will benefit from it, as the hon. Gentleman will know.

The hon. Gentleman mentioned Tees Valley in connection with logistics, environment interests, the creative industries and so forth, and I am aware that the connectivity he described is vital. A major new scheme will be taken forward on the A19. My hon. Friend the Member for Stockton South (James Wharton) has campaigned on this for some time, and I was pleased to see his parliamentary neighbour, the hon. Member for Stockton North (Alex Cunningham), joining his campaign to make those improvements.

Major new schemes, the Norton to Wynyard schemes, will be implemented on the A19. Along with two previously announced schemes on Tyneside—the A19 coast road and A19 Testos schemes—they will raise the A19 to expressway standard from Yorkshire to north of Newcastle. The widening of the A19 Billingham bypass in Teesside to three lanes between the A139 and the A689 will also include replacement of the concrete surface with low-noise surfacing. These investments will complement the Highways Agency’s pinch point schemes, which are already under way at two key junctions on the A19, and will smooth the way along the entire route, delivering more reliable journey times and reducing congestion and pollution.

[Alex Cunningham]

Will the Minister give way?

[Mr Hayes]

I will happily give way.

[Alex Cunningham]

Those who travel from the junction at Norton, where I live, on the A19 at 8.30 in the morning just join a queue for the next half hour. The real question is this: can we look forward to another crossing over the River Tees in the next programme that the Government plan?

[Mr Hayes]

I suggest that the hon. Gentleman apply for an Adjournment debate on just that issue, so that we can explore it in the depth that it deserves. As the Minister responsible, I should be delighted to respond to such a debate.

The roads investment plan also reflects the conclusions of the six feasibility studies announced in June 2013, which examined the case for improvements on the A1 and in other key national corridors.

In the time available to me, I shall depart from my script in order to deal specifically with some of the points made by the hon. Member for Middlesbrough, and, hopefully, give him good news. I share his view of the work that is being done on the Victorian cloisters at Middlesbrough station, and I will ensure that we pursue Network Rail so that the matter is dealt with speedily. Indeed, I will go further than that. The hon. Gentleman spoke about the roof which was destroyed in 1942. I wonder if we might consider the feasibility of doing something about that too, in the longer term.

I agree with the hon. Gentleman that a seat at the “Transport for the North” table for his area would be appropriate. He makes a persuasive case. I shall need to take it up with the Secretary of State, but I know that he is sympathetic to it, and I think that we should go ahead with it speedily. I also think that the hon. Gentleman is right about direct services to Middlesbrough, and I do not see why we should not consider the further improvements that he suggests as soon as the Government’s improvements to the east coast main line—on which I enjoy the privilege of travelling very frequently—have been completed.