National Networks: National Policy Statement

Lord Shipley Excerpts

Tuesday 20th January 2015 Grand Committee

[Lord Shipley (LD)]

My Lords, I welcome the Government’s response to the public consultation. It is clear, as my noble friend said, that there has been significant scrutiny. There is evidence that the draft has benefited from that, and the quality of the responses received has clearly been helpful in achieving that.

I place on record that infrastructure investment under this Government has risen over recent years and commend the Government for their commitment to achieving that and rebalancing the economy as they seek to do, because it is important to recognise that transport planning helps to drive growth in all parts of the UK.

I want to raise two specific issues. One relates to integration of transport systems across the UK; the other is a specific query relating to freight. I note that most organisations responding were supportive or neutral. It is noteworthy in paragraph 12 of the executive summary that there were requests for the NPS to adopt a more integrated approach across transport modes. In paragraph 4.11 of the Government’s response, they acknowledge that the,

“professional planning community and scheme promoters also wanted the NPS to provide spatial specificity highlighting where development and specific schemes were needed”.

The Minister rightly referred to that.

I understand that transport strategy, as is made clear in paragraph 4.16, is,

“beyond the scope of this consultation”.

That is understandable, because the NPS is a planning document which represents the decision-making framework for national road, rail and freight interchange projects. It is fundamental to growth strategies, but it is not a national transport plan, although some parts of it share some similarities with it. My point is that we need a UK-wide strategic transport plan. You can call it that, you can call it a strategy or you can call it a policy, but it needs to be a practical, deliverable statement of policy intent to put the road investment strategy, the rail investment strategy and all other transport strategies into context. That context is connectivity for all parts of the UK to support growth.

Let me give a specific example of what I am getting at by referring to the planning for HS2. I have been puzzled by paragraph 1.9 in the section on the policy context that says that it,

“does not cover High Speed Two”,

because of the hybrid Bill process, although it does set out the,

“policy for development of the road and rail networks and strategic freight interchanges”.

I understand why that is the case given that there is a hybrid Bill for HS2. My query relates to the availability of the plan and the money for connecting existing transport capacity with HS2. As the House of Commons Transport Committee said in recommendation 10, the NPS should,

“make explicit reference to the desirability of connecting HS2 to the classic rail network, so that people from around the UK can benefit from the new high speed rail line”.

My question is: will HS2 link adequately with existing networks and what about the new linkages that will be required where new HS2 stations are constructed outside city centres? I wonder who is doing the thinking on that, who is planning what they will be and who is assessing where the budget will be made available from to pay for it. So that is connectivity. I think that it would be hugely helpful for there to be a UK-wide transport plan that sought to look well into the future, as best we can, about what is needed for all parts of the UK.

I mentioned a specific question in relation to freight. For strategic roads, the NPS covers a very small part of the total number of roads, understandably, but for freight the NPS actually covers two-thirds of freight. My question is whether our policy on connectivity for freight ports is robust enough. Are we clear how—over, say, the next decade—we are going to ensure that all the pinch points, which still exist in some places, that restrict or slow down the connection of goods into ports for export, are assisted? Secondly, on the question of the rail gauge, I have always thought that the work being done by the DfT on rail gauges was sufficient to ensure that containers could move easily to ports. However, there is a question around the potential size of containers and their growth. Although it is true that there may be extra capacity forthcoming through HS2, I wonder what the thinking is on the larger-gauge rail freight systems if they could actually get more freight off the roads and on to rail.