Transport: HS2

Lord Rosser Excerpts

Tuesday 26th February 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Rosser]

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Truscott, for securing this debate, which provides an opportunity to discuss where we are with HS2 and to reiterate the point that, with the continuing growth in passenger and freight traffic, even during a recession, a new route is needed to address the inevitable and imminent line capacity problems, such as those on the west coast main line, where service frequencies are already well in excess of what they were a relatively few years ago.

We fully support the HS2 project, but we are concerned about its progress in the current Parliament. No legislation has been published, and the recent Command Paper suggested that Royal Assent for the Government’s first hybrid Bill would not be achieved until some point in 2015, and not by the time of the next election, as was previously intended. On top of that, the outcome of a judicial review is awaited. Perhaps the Minister could say when the Government expect to receive a judgment, and what impact a ruling against the Government would have on the timescale for the implementation of the HS2 project.

We have also expressed our concerns about the lack of a dedicated purpose-built link between HS1 and HS2, which would provide the proper links to enable HS2 to serve areas of the continent directly. Concerns have also been expressed that the Government do not propose to connect HS2 with our major city centres in some instances. There is also the issue of how HS2 will connect to Heathrow, which the Government have decided to park on one side pending the outcome of the Davies commission on aviation capacity, which will not report back before 2015. Our preference was to take HS2 directly via Heathrow. Now even the Government’s compromise position of a spur to provide a direct link to Heathrow has been taken off the table, at least for now.

The reality is that this Government are acquiring a reputation for dither and delay when it comes to major transport projects. A decision on airport capacity in the south-east has been put back until after the next general election. Now it looks as though there may be dither and delay over decision-making on HS2, not only as far as links to Heathrow are concerned but also because of apparent uncertainty over whether the Government still intend to pass the necessary legislation for even the first phase of HS2 through Parliament by the time of the general election. If the Government’s commitment to pass legislation in this Parliament still stands, can the Minister say what statutory issues in relation to HS2 that legislation will address?

The Minister owes it to everyone, whether they are supportive of HS2 or not, to clarify the Government’s intended actions with respect to the HS2 project between now and the general election in 2015. I hope that the Minister will respond to these points.