UK Infrastructure: 10-year Strategy

Debate between Darren Jones and Lauren Sullivan

Thursday 19th June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Darren Jones]

I thank the hon. Member for raising those important points. Adaptation and sustainable development are at the heart of this infrastructure strategy, and they have to be for all the obvious reasons. He may like to know that, as part of our new approach to spatial strategies in Government, we are already integrating data from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on flood risk, heat risk and water availability with data from other Departments—for example, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government—to ensure that we are planning properly for the future.

[Dr Lauren Sullivan (Gravesham) (Lab)]

I welcome the Green Book review of the co-ordination of joined-up infrastructure thinking—thank you so much. Promises have previously been made to local places affected by major infrastructure projects that they would see some local benefits. With that in mind, and with the lower Thames crossing coming to Gravesham, will he meet me to see how Gravesham could be a pilot for this place-based study and to really help with the affordable homes that are also desperately needed?

[Darren Jones]

I thank my hon. Friend for her question. I am always delighted to meet her, and we should meet colleagues from the Department for Transport to make sure that, where we are investing billions of pounds—whether that is public or private capital—in important infrastructure such as the lower Thames crossing, people benefit from the wider effects of that investment.

Growing the UK Economy

Debate between Darren Jones and Lauren Sullivan

Wednesday 29th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Darren Jones]

I have a growing list of invitations, Madam Deputy Speaker. I look forward, if my diary manager allows me, to going to my hon. Friend’s constituency. He will know that the transport connectivity and the house building targets in our plan for growth are crucial to ensuring that people are able to seize opportunities where they are from, without necessarily having to leave where they are from and find opportunities elsewhere in the country. That is what inclusive growth looks like.

[Dr Lauren Sullivan (Gravesham) (Lab)]

Will the Chief Secretary to the Treasury please confirm that the development consent order has not yet been granted for the lower Thames crossing, and that it will not necessarily go ahead without mitigations and protections for the residents in Gravesham, such as on local air quality issues, skills and training hubs in Gravesham, free and discounted travel for Gravesham residents, and the impact on the local roads? Will those issues absolutely be considered going forward, and will he meet me to discuss them?

[Darren Jones]

I would be delighted to meet my hon. Friend, who is doing a brilliant job, as the local MP, to ensure that these projects are done properly. I can confirm that, of course, all appropriate processes, including on the development consent order, will be undertaken in due course.