Diana Johnson
Main Page: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North and Cottingham)Department Debates - View all Diana Johnson's debates with the HM Treasury
(2 years, 2 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Kwasi Kwarteng
Just to remind my hon. Friend, investment zone conversations are very much being led by the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, who I am sure will be engaging with the relevant councils. I would be happy also to talk to my hon. Friend about the opportunities that investment zones represent.
Dame Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab)
Can I take the Chancellor back to his party’s manifesto commitment on levelling up? What I want to know is: will the investment zones tackle the need for real infrastructure investment, for example, if he is really serious about growth, the need for electrification of the line to Hull, which was ruled out by the Conservative party’s integrated rail plan just last November for the next 30 years.? Will he look at that again, if he is serious about growth?
Kwasi Kwarteng
We are always looking at infrastructure projects and measuring their benefit to cost ratio. Investment zones are, of course, naturally allied to key bits of infrastructure and they have to be co-ordinated. That is one of the purposes of what we are announcing.