Cheadle Train Station

Debate between Lisa Smart and Tom Morrison

Wednesday 18th March 2026 Westminster Hall

[Mr Morrison]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for that important intervention. Yes, the point is that this is about people. Given the rate I am losing my hair, I hope we get the train station while I have more hair than him.

Residents overwhelmingly support the new station, with 87% of people responding positively to the consultation, which was managed by Cheadle Civic Society and the Cheadle Village Partnership—two organisations that are run by local community activists who have the village at their heart. The proposal was approved for planning in 2023, but no work on site has been done. My constituents write to me almost every day to ask where the station is and why it has not been built yet.

Make no mistake: Cheadle rail station is a fully developed, shovel-ready proposal, and there is absolutely no reason it should have stalled like this. The business case was developed and approved, the land negotiations were progressed and agreed, the timetable modelling and independent analysis were all done, and never was there any sign that there could be a problem. It was a truly collaborative effort. Stockport council, Transport for Greater Manchester, Northern and Network Rail have all worked together to make Cheadle rail station a reality. Most importantly, the community stood up and pulled together to make it happen. This is truly the people’s project.

The plans have support from the leader of Stockport council, councillors and MPs across the borough, the Greater Manchester chamber of commerce, numerous local businesses, and the Greater Manchester combined authority, which included the station in the 2025 Greater Manchester strategy. The project even has the support of the Mayor of Greater Manchester. The station is designed to be inclusive, which will be especially welcome news to train station accessibility campaigner Nathaniel Yates, who works so hard to make sure that all Greater Manchester rail stations have disabled access.

[Lisa Smart (Hazel Grove) (LD)]

My hon. Friend and constituency neighbour is making a compelling case for the people of Cheadle to get the railway station they deserve. He mentioned Nathaniel Yates, who is a phenomenal campaigner in our region for accessibility at railway stations, and I visited Bredbury station and Romiley station with him. I am sure my hon. Friend agrees that when we eventually do get Cheadle station, it should be accessible, so that everybody can access it and people get the rail service they deserve.

[Mr Morrison]

I thank my hon. Friend for that important intervention. The one word we can use to describe Nathaniel Yates is “legend”. He has put accessibility at train stations at the very top of the agenda in Greater Manchester, and we should all follow his lead on this.

Transport for Greater Manchester says that the station would deliver significant benefits, including fast, reliable and accessible connections between Cheadle, Stockport and Manchester, meaning greater opportunities and less car dependency. Additionally, the increase in journeys would improve the commercial sustainability of the mid-Cheshire line. There would be an estimated demand for 91,000 new passenger journeys a year by the late 2020s, and approximately £400,000 per year in additional revenue.

Sadly, the project has been stalled for some time, and we await a rail industry governance decision on the future of the project. There have been concerns about timetable changes on the mid-Cheshire line, but independent modelling and an industry review show that only minor adjustments are required, with an overall neutral impact on network performance. Any interim adjustments would be temporary and manageable. Network Rail has concerns about the fragility of the Stockport-Manchester corridor, but existing modelling clearly shows that the impact is manageable. That should not outweigh the case for investing in growth, connectivity and opportunity.

It is clear that Cheadle rail station would be more than viable. The Government know this and are dragging their feet—it simply does not make sense. The station makes sense politically, economically, environmentally and socially. The delays in decision making are not only putting the future of the station at risk but undermining the confidence of the public—a public who not only backed the rail station but delivered the consultation. They lobbied politicians and raised a huge campaign in favour of the plans. They are the people who deserve this, and any decision to the contrary, especially after walking them up that hill, would be unforgivable.

The towns fund programme has already had to extend the funding deadline to March 2027 because of the delays. Additionally, costs are increasing with inflation every day, and uncertainty is building for partners and contractors. Constituents write to me week in, week out, without fail, to inquire about the progress of the station, and each week I am unable to update them further. This cannot go on.

The people of Cheadle need clear direction from the Government. Responsibility for the delay lies squarely with the Department for Transport, which has the mandate to instruct Northern to serve the new station—powers that neither Stockport council nor Transport for Greater Manchester have. The Department must confirm that the required timetable change can proceed, outline a firm pathway for construction, and constructively engage with Network Rail and Northern Rail to move the project forward.

Since this bump in the road arose, I and the Cheadle towns fund board have taken numerous steps to engage with the Department for Transport directly. I wrote to the Rail Minister, Lord Hendy, in December and urged him to provide clarity, and I am still awaiting a response. Stockport council and the Cheadle towns fund board have also written to the Minister, and are awaiting a response.

I say again that Cheadle train station is fully funded, planned and widely supported, and would only enhance Cheadle further, drastically improving residents’ lives, boosting growth in the economy, tackling regional inequality and increasing sustainable transport. The Government simply need to get their act together and sign it off. With Government backing, the station would quickly become a reality, regenerating the village centre, increasing connectivity and driving economic resilience. Very few infrastructure projects reach this stage with such strong backing and unified support.

This is also a prime opportunity for the Government to walk the walk and combat the regional inequalities that they claim to prioritise. The Institute for Public Policy Research argues that the UK’s economic success relies on northern growth, and I could not agree more. Improving people’s day-to-day quality of life directly creates the growth that this country so desperately needs. Treasury officials have previously described the north as an “untapped gold reserve”, and I know that to be true, but the Government must follow that up with action.

Let me highlight the impact of regional inequalities on young people in my constituency. While facing massive challenges, they are now doubly burdened with record unemployment and fewer opportunities for starting out in life. The young people of Cheadle need a good public transport system to help them to access education and jobs. This is not a “nice to have”; they need it.

Does the Minister want Cheadle to thrive and invest in the long term? Do the Government want to leave a legacy that will improve the lives of constituents in Cheadle? Do the Government really mean it when they say they will support clean growth and investment in public transport? Will they get on the train headed towards a more equitable and prosperous country? Will the Minister confirm that the Department will provide the necessary direction so that Cheadle train station can move into delivery without further delay?

I would like to leave a picture in everyone’s minds—a vision for Cheadle. I envision a stronger, more resilient and connected Cheadle in just a few years’ time: a Cheadle where elderly residents such as Paul can easily get the train to their doctor’s appointment; a Cheadle where the high street is thriving even more, and where businesses are fighting to open; a Cheadle where Elise, a teenager at college, can be independent and travel quickly to college without buying a car; and a Cheadle where all residents can easily travel to Hazel Grove and Stockport within minutes, but also to Manchester city centre, Greater Manchester and beyond far more easily than ever before.

Local Government Funding: North-west England

Debate between Lisa Smart and Tom Morrison

Tuesday 21st October 2025 Westminster Hall

[Mr Morrison]

I completely agree. There has to be a two-way dialogue, in which the Government talk and work with local government to work out the challenges that need to be fixed.

The Local Government Association reports that 29 councils needed exceptional financial support in 2025-26 to set a balanced budget. That is 11 more than the previous year, and I am afraid that number will only continue to grow. The Government’s pride in place strategy is meaningless when local authorities are still being encouraged to sell community commodities such as libraries and leisure centres to avoid financial ruin. That is no way to set our communities up for success. It is stripping away the key things that make a community, the places where people gather and access the support and services that they need. Drawing on dwindling reserves is not a sustainable financial plan.

However, there are also regional inequalities to the issue, which slice across all aspects of daily life, from transport to potholes. Last year’s fairer funding review lacked all nuance, basing criteria for recovery grants on deprivation figures from over a decade ago. Stockport council missed out on any recovery funding; it is now left to pick up the pieces, and to continue fighting tooth and nail without the £20 million it so desperately needs to sustain long-term services, despite having some of the most deprived wards in the UK in our borough. In just three years’ time, Stockport council will be underfunded by £63 million. Despite that, the council won local authority of the year in 2025—a testament to its officers and councillors.

Stockport is a council that does not shy away from hard decisions. It was promised more from the Government, yet things have not changed. In opposition, the Labour party decried the underfunding of local councils across the country and said that things could only get better under its tenure. Well, councils are facing the same problems across the north-west, and we are seeing the same lack of ideas from the Government that we did under the Conservatives. Real-time cuts to local government funding in Stockport alone have reached more than £133 million in the past few years. As a result, Stockport council was forced to find £24.5 million of savings just for the 2025 budget.

[Lisa Smart (Hazel Grove) (LD)]

As a fellow Stockport MP, I am delighted that my hon. Friend has secured this debate. I strongly agree with the points he is making about the underfunding of local government over a period of years, particularly in our part of the world. I wonder if he agrees that the root of some of the problems is the unsustainability of social care. As his constituent Stuart mentioned, for Stockport council, £3 in every £4 is spent on either adult or children’s social care. The demand for that is increasing, yet the funding available is not. Does he agree that the Government taking three years to do a review into social care is too long, and that they should crack on?

[Mr Morrison]

I completely agree. The point, when it comes to social care, is political will. All parties have talked about the importance of social care and of getting the funding right. There is no need to wait for three years; we should indeed crack on.

Regional growth drives national growth. If regions are not invested in, we cannot expect the country to thrive. There are ever-expanding divides between regions, which have consequences on the quality and even length of people’s lives. According to the Institute for Public Policy Research, transport illustrates that divide exceedingly well. In London, people receive £1,183 per head for transport, but in the north-west it is less than half that figure, at just £540 per person. In total, across the north, that is an investment gap of £140 billion.

Our growth is low and slow as a country because areas outside the south-east have been neglected time and again. Anne, another constituent of mine in Bramhall, wrote to me recently to explain her frustrations. She said:

“Residents are being asked to pay more while receiving less and now must pay extra just to maintain a service that was previously included. Public frustration is escalating rapidly across online forums, community groups, and social media. What can be done about this?”

It is no wonder the public are increasingly frustrated when core spending power for local government remains 16.4% lower in real terms this year compared with 2010. The services that local government provides are vital to people’s everyday lives: bin collections, green space maintenance, street cleaning and social care for our most vulnerable residents.

If local governments can no longer sustain those services, our country will decline rapidly as people’s everyday quality of life suffers. Although the guarantee of multiyear settlements and a move away from fragmented, ringfenced grants are a step in the right direction, that is still not enough. Those changes will not be felt and frustrations will continue to grow, especially as the Government continue to work on the basis that local authorities will continuously raise council tax by the maximum 4.99% each year.