Rolling Stock (North of England)
Debate between Angela Smith and Jason McCartney(10 years, 9 months ago)
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Angela Smith
I completely concur with my right hon. Friend’s remarks. Last Wednesday was an illustration of just how little significance is attached to the needs of train users in the north of England; there was an immature response from the Government Front Bench team to a serious question.
Angela Smith
I myself used TransPennine Express only the other week and when I got to the station I found that one of the carriages on the train had been removed, and a significant number of people had to stand from Sheffield to Manchester. In fact, that is a regular experience for people using that line, the Hope Valley line, and it is just the same for people using the Leeds to Manchester line. This is a pressing issue.
Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)
As my hon. Friend knows, we in the all-party group on Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire try to keep these debates on an all-party basis, and we have been very tolerant. I am sorry that the hon. Member for Colne Valley (Jason McCartney) shouted at her a little earlier. However, we are all in favour of the northern hub. Some of us think that High Speed 2 is a problem. Many of us would much rather get the northern hub sooner. However, there is a network across the Pennines that we must sustain and improve quickly.
Angela Smith
I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention. Indeed, I agree with him on most of those points, particularly about the northern hub, which was initiated by the previous Government and brought forward to completion, in terms of agreeing all the terms and the funding for it. That was a genuinely cross-party effort, and there was a genuine consensus on it, to ensure that the northern hub goes ahead. However, the problem with the northern hub is that although it opens up the network, frees it up and creates more capacity, there remains a potential problem, to which my hon. Friend the Member for Blackley and Broughton (Graham Stringer) referred earlier, of providing the rolling stock that is necessary to ensure that we can make good use of the increased capacity.
Angela Smith
That illustrates perfectly that we have to defend it. It is one of the sad realities of parliamentary life that those of us in the north of England, including those in the north-east and the furthermost outreaches of the north-west and Cumbria, have to defend our corner at every twist and turn.
The hon. Member for Colne Valley (Jason McCartney) wanted me to give way. I shall, but this is the last time, because I really must make progress.
Jason McCartney
I thank the hon. Lady, my neighbour, for giving way. I also praise my other neighbour, the hon. Member for Huddersfield (Mr Sheerman), who rightly said that we should not be harrumphing about partisan points here, because we have worked so well together in this Chamber.
I wonder whether the hon. Lady would like to congratulate the Government on the £550 million investment in the northern hub and the electrification of the TransPennine route. Let us all work together to get better trans-Pennine services and better services on Northern Rail as well, which I use in my constituency.
Angela Smith
I said a few moments ago that I acknowledge the consensus on the northern hub and I am pleased to see it go ahead. On the basis of the hon. Gentleman’s comments, I assume that he will support the argument we are making today, to ensure that that rolling stock remains in the north of England and that we have sufficient rolling stock capacity to make good use of the northern hub, once it is completed.
Regional Growth Fund
Debate between Angela Smith and Jason McCartney(13 years, 1 month ago)
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Angela Smith
My hon. Friend is right. The growth figures today show that we are heading for a gross domestic product growth increase of 0.5% over the past year, which is a significant slow-down from the 2.6% registered in the last year of the Labour Government. It is appalling that the Government do not seem able to resolve issues to do with releasing investment to manufacturing and businesses up and down the country, and do not seem able to ensure that the funding flows quickly to the companies that need it in order to secure our economic future.
Jason McCartney (Colne Valley) (Con)
I thank the hon. Lady—my neighbour in West Yorkshire—for giving way, but I found your partisan language, your doom-mongering and your negativity quite shocking, which is a shame.
Jason McCartney
That was a £2 million investment, which will secure 80 new jobs.
Angela Smith
I would welcome recognition by the Government that we need far more than what is on offer on the table. We need proper decentralisation of the decision-making processes, more transparency, and a more efficient way of delivering funds to companies. The chances of such funds delivering significant economic growth are about as good as the chances of Huddersfield football club getting a promotion to the championship next year.