Oral Answers to Questions

Barry Sheerman Excerpts

Thursday 10th November 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mrs Villiers]

My hon. Friend makes an important point. I assure him that there is always space for taxpayer funding for bigger-scale station upgrades. In terms of encouraging train operators to invest in station improvements, I also agree that we need to find ways to encourage them to invest in long-term projects that may have a pay-back period beyond the end of the franchise. One of the ways we are addressing that is with longer franchises, but we are also working carefully on how we improve the mechanisms for delivering a residual value at the end of the franchise for just the sort of investments he wants to see.

[Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)]

The Minister will have heard the report this morning about the tremendous gap between London and the south and the rest of the country. Many of us look at the wonderful Cannon Street glass palace and the work on King’s Cross, but we wonder when we are going to get that level of investment in the regions of this country, particularly in the north, and when we are going to get the smaller stations upgraded so that they are civilised places to catch a train.

[Mrs Villiers]

The hon. Gentleman raises a very important point. It is crucial that we do all we can to close the north-south economic divide. That is part of the reason for driving forward high-speed rail. It is also partly why we are carrying out major investment in electrification in the north of England to improve stations such as Manchester Victoria, using funds such as the national station improvement programme, together with Access for All, and reforming the franchise system, as I have said, to encourage private sector investment in improving stations and improving transport connections between our northern cities. The go-ahead for the Ordsall chord is also welcome on that score.