High Speed Rail (London – West Midlands) Bill

Debate between James Gray and Phillip Lee

Monday 28th April 2014 Commons Chamber

[Dr Phillip Lee (Bracknell) (Con)]

In my short contribution, I will try not to repeat what has been said about the shortcomings of the HS2 project.

Despite the many valid economic and environmental concerns already expressed eloquently by many colleagues, HS2 would, perhaps, still be quite a nice thing to have. Like most people, I prefer travelling on fast trains rather than slow ones, but spending £50 billion plus on something nice to have is just not good enough. Public spending of this magnitude should be about implementing strategic priorities and I do not believe that fast rail tops the priority list of infrastructure projects that are required for the benefit of our country’s future. I would place all of the following ahead of fast rail: new energy generation, such as nuclear reactors; superfast broadband for all, which the South Koreans currently enjoy; a new national hub airport; a fast train connecting Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds and Hull; and a fleet of new regional acute hospitals with supported community hospitals. I believe that the majority of the British public would agree with me.

Any one of the concerns expressed by colleagues, especially by my right hon. Friend the Member for Chesham and Amersham (Mrs Gillan), would be reason enough not to spend our resources on HS2—and yes it is about resources. It is not just the money, but about the combined efforts of a large number of people and natural resources that we ought to treasure. None of these reasons, however, gets close to why I cannot support this rail project. I cannot support it because it takes our country in the wrong direction. Quite simply, HS2 is a project of the past, not the future. It is the wrong plan at the wrong time. It will probably contribute to the country’s problems rather than solve any of them: more debt, a blighted local environment along the path of the track, and no likely return in an increasingly global economy dependent on data transfer, not the transport of people. To be blunt, we will not be getting the returns that taxpayers deserve on their investment.

Our national priorities should be about a vision that rockets us into a more competitive world, not about chugging along as we are, albeit 10 minutes faster between London and Birmingham. Is it truly ambitious of us to want to be the France of the 1970s or the Japan of the 1960s? Our country’s infrastructure spending should be about delivering the new paradigm shifts that have always given our country the edge and delivered inspiring world-leading technology and innovation. A train like the one the Japanese have promised between Tokyo and Nagoya that will travel at 600 km per hour would be proper high-speed rail. We should, perhaps, be building on what could be globally transformative: laser technology, new aircraft engines that could get us to Australia in four hours, new craft to explore the richly resourced ocean bed that we know so little about and to push back frontiers in space, an environment in which real future economic opportunities exist already for British industry.

I believe that the future will be about the fast transmission of data, not people. With recent information technology developments such as 3D printing, securing an economic future for Britain will be more about the capacity for data transmission, not the capacity to transport people. We will all be manufacturers in the future. Manufacturing will not be taking place far away. Government strategy should be about reducing people’s need to make rail journeys. Improving broadband is one way of achieving that. The widespread installation of fibre-optic cabling, the increased use of satellite broadband technology to serve more rural areas and more extensive 4G would allow people to spend longer at home.

[Mr James Gray (North Wiltshire) (Con)]

Does my hon. Friend agree that the strength of the arguments he is making comes from the fact that his constituency will neither benefit nor suffer any disbenefits from HS2? He is making a straightforward economic argument against HS2, for very good reasons.

[Dr Lee]

I do not have a direct relationship with HS2, but I am of the opinion that I have been elected to a national Parliament and when something affects my country, I should pass comment on it. We are aware of the realities of the future—the need to reduce our dependency on energy and the need to look after our elderly relatives. I suspect we will not be living so far apart from the members of our extended families in future.

In closing, let me say that I have spent the entire afternoon baffled by the contributions of many of my colleagues, on both sides of the House. I do not see a future of people travelling more domestically; I see a future of travelling less. In the 2030s and 2040s, when the project comes to fruition, I suspect we will be travelling less domestically. We need to travel more internationally, which is why I would put a hub airport ahead of fast rail. I am no nimby, as my hon. Friend the Member for North Wiltshire (Mr Gray) has pointed out. I have been loyal to the Conservative party’s 2010 manifesto since being elected and I have no intention of voting against anything in that manifesto this evening, so I will be abstaining as a point of principle. HS2 will not get this country to the destination I want for it. Our resources should be better spent elsewhere. I cannot support this project.