Rail Services: Devon

Mark Pritchard Excerpts

Wednesday 11th December 2024 Westminster Hall

[Steve Race]

I thank the hon. Member for her intervention. Some hon. Members joined me and others at a recent meeting with the rail Minister Lord Hendy to discuss the impact of the works at Old Oak Common associated with HS2. I will not go into that too much in this speech, as it is a big topic. I am in favour of HS2 going ahead, and feel what has happened to that project over the years has been disgraceful. In the south-west we need to see effective management of that project to ensure that disruption is minimised. We also need to see investment in our local railway lines to ensure that we see the benefit of public transport, as well as the rest of the country.

Speaking of the Exeter-Barnstaple line, potential improvement outcomes of the project include significantly improved punctuality and reliability for both Barnstaple and Okehampton train services, with reduced knock-on delays to other parts of the national network. It would deliver materially faster typical journey times, with a fastest journey between Barnstaple and Exeter St Davids of no more than 55 minutes, with potential further material time journey savings. It would also double train service frequency from hourly to two per hour—[Interruption.]

[Mark Pritchard (in the Chair)]

Order. I will suspend the sitting for Divisions in the House. We expect three votes; 15 minutes are allowed for the first one and 10 minutes for subsequent votes. There may be two or three. If Members get back as quickly as possible, and the mover of the motion and the Minister are in their place, we will commence the debate. That is an encouragement for others to make it back tout de suite from the second or third Division.

--- Later in debate ---

[Rebecca Smith (South West Devon) (Con)]

It is a privilege to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Pritchard, and I am delighted to follow my colleagues from across Devon; I know that some others will be speaking shortly. Hon. Members who listened to my maiden speech will have noticed that I have committed to fighting for railway and transport in the south-west, so when I saw that there would be a debate today, I thought, “Well, I’ve got to come along and make sure I play my part.” Sadly, there will be no mentions of Kylie Minogue’s “The Loco-Motion” today, but if hon. Members want to read my maiden speech, they are welcome to.

What is clear in all things to do with the railway in the south-west, and particularly in Devon, is that we are looking for parity with the rest of the country. That has been alluded to particularly in the context of HS2. I know that HS2 has historically had cross-party support, but right from the beginning, I thought, “Hang on a minute, what about the south-west? Journey times that are a few minutes shorter on an already easy transport route from London to the midlands, versus what we get in the south-west?” I have never completely followed the argument, but we are where we are today.

It is important to acknowledge what the previous Government did in terms of taking responsibility for the south-west. We must not forget that £165 million was invested in the south-west rail resilience programme, and that got us almost to where we are today. We just need the final piece of the jigsaw to ensure that the line that takes us down into the south-west is secure. We must give credit where credit is due.

It is important to remember that, as I talked about in my maiden speech, the south-west is not just a tourist attraction. People live there and there is an enormous opportunity for even further growth. We are an incredibly vibrant economy: the blue and green economies are growing, and we are keen to grow, but without an adequate rail service into the south-west, that is massively hindered. Like Exeter, my constituency of South West Devon has a joint local plan that is already being delivered, but infrastructure is key, and I will touch briefly on that towards the end of my speech. My main question for the Minister is: what difference will public ownership of the railway make for the south-west? That is the big question overarching everything else.

I want to touch briefly on Old Oak Common, the Tavistock railway and Ivybridge, which is in my constituency. I want to touch on Old Oak Common because the recent helpful letter from the Rail Minister talks about a pot of £30 million for capital investments to mitigate the impact of disruption, which begs the question: what will it be spent on? It would be interesting to hear some detail. I think we can all make pitches for what that should cover: wi-fi has been touched on; and I will mention the Plymouth to Tavistock line—a nice project that would cost a fraction of the £30 million. We also have some challenges with platform lengths that prevent certain trains from stopping in my constituency.

At the moment, the benefits outlined in that letter, which says that we will be able to get connections to the north and the midlands, do not pass the “So what?” test, because we can already get to the midlands and the north from the south-west directly without having to go across to London in a triangle. Although it will help some connectivity, it does not stack up for constituents in Devon to know that they could go to London to get to Birmingham, when they could go straight to Birmingham from Plymouth or Exeter. I acknowledge that the easier access to Heathrow may be helpful, but again, it is of limited value.

That leads me to rebuilding Britain’s railway. The rail Minister provided a helpful answer that said that the Department is

“reviewing individual former RYR projects, including the Tavistock to Plymouth line.”

The ask has now been scaled back: they are asking for just 1% of the RYR budget, which is the seed money to finalise the business plan so that we can get to a point where we are shovel-ready for 2028. The hon. Member for Exeter (Steve Race) has already highlighted the appetite that we can see from the Okehampton line. It is also worth saying that it makes us more resilient, because we can ultimately create a circle that will go from Exeter all the way round to Plymouth and back, and that does not require Dawlish. In the next 10 or 15 years, that will be part of building rail resilience.

The project is just looking for 1%, which is less than £1.5 million and could be part of that £30 million capital—I do not know whether it counts as capital or revenue, but the question is when the decision can be expected and when the Department will feed back on whether that line is one of those that will be considered. That point links up, again, to the joint local plan. We have a metro rail plan for Plymouth that includes a station at Plympton in my constituency, which would be part of that circle that goes round to Ivybridge and up.

I wanted to mention Ivybridge, which is also in my constituency. At the moment, only 16 Great Western trains stop there a day. There are 29 CrossCountry services that go through the station but do not stop, and at the moment CrossCountry is refusing to do that. In light of the nationalisation plans, I would be interested to know what measures the Department might be able to take to put pressure on CrossCountry, so that 16 becomes 45 weekday services that my constituents could use to access the wider area.

[Mark Pritchard (in the Chair)]

We come now to the Front-Bench speeches: five minutes for the Liberal Democrats, five minutes for the official Opposition and 10 minutes for the Minister.

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[Jerome Mayhew (Broadland and Fakenham) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to see you in your position, Mr Pritchard. You remain an ornament of the Bench.

I congratulate the hon. Member for Exeter (Steve Race) on securing the debate. I have learned a lot about the rail possibilities in Devon. A huge number of issues were raised, including both threats and opportunities for the area. I will read just a handful of those I have written down: the Dawlish sea wall works; the success story of the reopening of the redundant Exeter to Okehampton line; Old Oak Common, which I will talk a little about; accessibility challenges at stations; platform lengths, and the cancellation of the restoring your railway plan. However, that was all mentioned within the framework of the hon. Member’s initial assessment that rail is an enormous success in the area, and that is overwhelmingly due to the benefits of privatisation.

From the heyday of the railway, which is generally considered to be the early 1950s, participation trended inexorably downwards—people voted with their feet; the direction of travel was a straight line downwards—until privatisation, when it reversed. That is because of the enormous investment that privatisation allowed to be brought into the railway, and passenger numbers have doubled as a result. I therefore question what the Government’s position on renationalisation will do for passenger numbers and who will stand up for the passenger under the new system—but most of that is for another day.

I will touch on two of the issues that were raised, the first of which is Old Oak Common. There is deep concern in the region about the impact on GWR services, with diversion of services from the south-west, reduced track operations, closure of access to London Paddington, occasional redirection to London Euston—but when, and will it be predictable?—longer journeys and a reduced quality of service. I am sure the Minister recognises that, and the need for disruption is understood. My question is whether people will have to pay similar prices for a noticeably worse and disrupted service, and when they will have certainty about the timetable—not just a printed timetable, but one in which they can have confidence sufficient to book and rely on the service being delivered.

The other issue with GWR is Sunday performance, which is reliant on voluntary overtime from unionised drivers and other train operators. That is an extraordinary position to be in. I recognise that this is a long-standing issue, so I am not having a particular go, but how can we possibly have a mandated schedule that is reliant on people volunteering to staff it? I look for a Government response on that. Early signs are not particularly encouraging. The no strings attached £9,000 pay rise to ASLEF train drivers, with no Sunday working agreements or any productivity enhancing characteristics, is not a good start. I fear that nationalisation of the service as a whole will only make it worse. My question to Minister is: when the system is nationalised, and there is no incentive to go after extra customers, who will stand up for the customer experience? When the Minister for Rail—the noble Lord, Lord Hendy—says that he continues to press for resolution of the Sunday working issue, I ask the Minister how. We all wish it, but what active steps will the Government take?

Secondly, in my last 30 seconds, I want to talk about restoring your railway. The first thing the Government did in July was cancel it. It was an enormously popular project and we have seen how effective it was from Exeter to Okehampton. The Tavistock to Plymouth service is just as important. However, in his letter yesterday, Lord Hendy is now saying that the Department is looking at it again. Is that a U-turn? If they needed time to stop and think, why did the Government not do that, rather than take the precipitate decision to cancel the entire project back in July? If their answer is “Well, there was no money”, that is not correct. There was the entire £150 million of funding for that project, which was coming from the cancellation of the second leg of HS2—[Interruption.] If that has been gobbled up by something else, perhaps the Minister can tell us what has happened to the money.

[Mark Pritchard (in the Chair)]

Order. I just remind Parliamentary Private Secretaries that they do not usually intervene, either officially or unofficially, if they do not mind my saying so.

Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure

Mark Pritchard Excerpts

Tuesday 7th March 2023 Westminster Hall

[Mark Pritchard (in the Chair)]

I will call Stephen Hammond to move the motion, and then I will call the Minister to respond. As the hon. Gentleman knows, in 30-minute debates he does not get a one-minute wind-up at the end.

[Stephen Hammond (Wimbledon) (Con)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered electric vehicle charging infrastructure.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Pritchard. We had an important hour and a half debate on electric vehicle charging in this place less than two weeks ago, led by my hon. Friend the Member for Winchester (Steve Brine). It was a wide-ranging debate and we touched on a number of issues, but today I want to define it slightly more tightly and look at a couple of issues in a bit more detail. I recognise that there is a risk of repetition, but this is an extraordinarily important matter for this country to get right.

Although the country and the Government are making huge progress—the Government are leading the world, to a great extent, with the UK’s net zero target of 2050 and the phasing out of the internal combustion engine by the beginning of the 2030s—it is hugely important that they set aspirations and lead other nations.

Silsden and Steeton Bridge

Mark Pritchard Excerpts

Wednesday 25th January 2023 Westminster Hall

[Mark Pritchard (in the Chair)]

I call Robbie Moore to move the motion, and then I will call the Minister to respond. As hon. Members know, there is no opportunity for the mover of the motion to wind up in a 30-minute debate.

[Robbie Moore (Keighley) (Con)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered construction of a Silsden and Steeton bridge.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Pritchard. I am delighted to have secured my own personal time in the House of Commons to raise an important local issue: my campaign to get the Silsden to Steeton pedestrian bridge built over the busy A629 dual carriageway.

Before I get into the detail, it is important to outline why this campaign is so important. Silsden is a town with a population of around 8,000, including myself; perhaps I should declare that as an interest, because I would like to benefit from this bridge. Silsden is connected to Steeton—a slightly smaller settlement—by the A6034, otherwise known as Keighley Road, which then goes on to become Station Road. It is a distance of less than 1,000 metres.

Steeton has a busy and well-utilised railway station, with direct links to Skipton, Bradford and Leeds. Many of my constituents living in Silsden benefit from that station, but getting there is a treacherous journey on foot. What separates the two settlements is a very busy dual carriageway. The A629 is a busy trunk road going east to west between Skipton and Keighley, and beyond. It takes a huge amount of heavy traffic every day and into the night.

On the junction between the busy dual carriageway and the two roads connecting Silsden and Steeton is a two-lane roundabout. There is no ideal crossing point for a pedestrian to get across the roundabout and the busy dual carriageway from Silsden to Steeton. For a resident living in Silsden with children, or a young person who is wanting to walk from Silsden to Steeton, the connection to get to the roundabout is not easy in itself. The pavements are very narrow on either side of the road.

If a person is walking from Silsden in the direction of Steeton, once they get to the bridge that goes over the Aire river, the pavement disappears on one side and they have to cross over to the other side. They then have to make their way up to the busy roundabout and take their life into their hands to cross it before making their way on to Steeton. That is just not good enough. We must get a pedestrian bridge built as a matter of urgency, because many people use the crossing.

What action has been taken to date? Kris Hopkins, who was the previous Conservative MP for Keighley, first lobbied on the issue. He got a petition going that was signed by many residents living in Silsden and Steeton who had to use the crossing on a day-to-day basis. As the MP for Keighley, and Ilkley at the time, he was successful in securing £700,000 from our Conversative Government for a feasibility study, which was awarded to the West Yorkshire Combined Authority. In turn, it instructed Bradford Council to undertake a feasibility study and build a business case so more funds could be drawn down to get the pedestrian bridge built.

That money was awarded way back in late 2016, and it took until 2020 for the Labour-run Bradford Council and the Labour-run West Yorkshire Combined Authority to even get the feasibility study done. Almost four years! What on earth were they doing in that period to build a business case? It was only after I lobbied, after getting elected in 2019, that Bradford Council and West Yorkshire Combined Authority produced this feasibility study, and—surprise, surprise—what do we think it said? We need a bridge to cross this busy dual carriageway. Unbelievable! They spent £700,000 on determining that, but we could all have said that it needed to be done.

The feasibility study said that it was going to cost £3.6 million to construct the bridge—a hefty sum. Of course, detail is important, and I appreciate that it can take some time to build up the feasibility and business cases to draw down funds. But, looking at the figures, it would seem that West Yorkshire Combined Authority, a Labour-run administration controlled by a Labour Mayor, and the Labour administration at Bradford Council could not even get their figures right. In 2020, they told us, and my constituents, that it was going to cost £3.6 million to build the bridge. In June 2021, they then told us it was going to cost £5.5 million, and then—surprise, surprise—we get to August 2022 and the figure has gone up dramatically to £10.3 million.

All we want is a pedestrian bridge across a dual carriageway, and they are now telling us that it is going to cost £10.3 million. That is an increase of £6.7 million since the first figure of £3.6 million from the feasibility study that took them almost four years to do. What on earth have they been doing during the last four years, and what on earth was the previous Labour MP doing to get any traction on this project? Nothing!

I can only assume that those figures have been exaggerated to try to kick the project into the long grass because they are not interested in building the bridge. Well, let me tell you, Mr Pritchard: I absolutely am. Since I have been elected as the Conservative MP, we have been successful in securing the funds to deliver this project. Those funds have been awarded by this Conservative Government to West Yorkshire Combined Authority via an £830 million fund that is ringfenced for transport and infrastructure-related projects.

The money is there; we have secured that, and now it moves on to deliverability. Back in 2022, when the announcement was made that we had been successful and secured the money, what did Labour-run Bradford Council and Labour-run West Yorkshire Combined Authority tell us? “Oh well, it is going to take until 2026 for this bridge to be built.” I cannot get my head around how much time it takes to get a project off the ground. All we want is a safe crossing so that my constituents can get from Silsden to Steeton without having to take their lives into their hands by crossing a busy dual carriageway.

The incompetence at the council is unbelievable. Look at how long it takes to get major infrastructure projects off the ground. The Queensferry crossing, connecting Edinburgh to Fife, took six years to build, yet the council are saying that a pedestrian bridge is going to take another four years to get off the ground. That is simply not good enough. The feedback that I am getting is that the ground conditions are complex—well, let’s get it sorted out and do our research so that we can get the bridge built. I know that planning issues can be complex. Compulsory purchase powers may need to be implemented because I assume that land take will be required, as the council will not own all of the land. Let us get this project going.

I will continue to bang the drum for driving economic growth and ensuring that we have a safe crossing for my constituents, but we must get the council and West Yorkshire Combined Authority moving because I am getting impatient and I will not stop banging the drum on this issue for my constituents. All we want is a safe pedestrian crossing over a busy dual carriageway. I want to crack on and get it built now, so that a parent living in Silsden does not have to drive their child almost 1 km to drop them off at the station in Steeton or take their life into their hands when crossing the dual carriageway. I am getting fed up with the sluggish approach of our council and of West Yorkshire Combined Authority. As I say, let us get this bridge built.

Will the Minister use all his efforts to put pressure on the Labour West Yorkshire Mayor, who is dragging her feet on this issue, and on Labour-run Bradford Council, to get this project delivered with urgency? Will he write to those two organisations to put pressure on them to get the bridge built? Will he come to see me and meet some of my residents in Silsden and Steeton, so that we can get this project off the ground? All we want to do is get the bridge built.

Covid-19: Aviation

Mark Pritchard Excerpts

Wednesday 3rd June 2020 Commons Chamber

[Kelly Tolhurst]

I like the hon. Lady’s optimism for beer and sandwiches. I personally do not drink beer, so that would not necessarily be of benefit to me. Wine is more to my taste. But I should say that we remain committed as a Government to do what we need to do and align the policies in order to get planes up in the air. The aviation sector is so important for the UK economy and it will remain so, particularly with our regional connectivity. We will work through this crisis with the aviation sector in mind, working on what we can do to mitigate its impact.

[Mark Pritchard (The Wrekin) (Con)]

Will the Minister continue to press the Home Office on introducing a flexible quarantine rather than a blanket quarantine, so that countries with high infection rates can be targeted rather than every country, including those with low infection rates? While she has the opportunity, given that some extensions have been given to review periods, will she give a commitment to the House that any review, post 29 June, will be for three weeks and three weeks only and will not be extended to four weeks or further?

[Kelly Tolhurst]

My hon. Friend is right to suggest that any quarantine review period needs to be understood by the sector. As I have already outlined, we are working with the sector and we are investigating air bridges. There is a lot of work going on internationally as well, with other international organisations, and that is quite right because this is not something that purely affects the UK. In relation to quarantine, a number of countries are following suit or have already implemented measures at this time. The Home Secretary will be making a statement immediately after this in relation to the policy, and I obviously do not want to pre-empt anything that she might say.

Oral Answers to Questions

Mark Pritchard Excerpts

Thursday 2nd May 2019 Commons Chamber

[Chris Grayling]

When I took on this sale, I ensured—in the work we did to prepare for the sale and with potential buyers—that additional safeguards were put in place for those tenants. Whether the arches had remained in the public sector or been sold, it would always have been right to ensure that a market rent was charged. There is no expectation of rent increases out of line with market rents. In the public sector, it would not have been proper use of public money to provide subsidised rents for businesses.

[Mark Pritchard (The Wrekin) (Con)]

On airport security, given the stresses and strains on many police forces, not least the Met police and Sussex police, what further consideration has the Transport Secretary given to allowing the British Transport police to have responsibility for the security of British airports?

[Chris Grayling]

That suggestion has been put to me on a couple of occasions. At the moment, because of the nature of the threat around our airports and the fact that so much airport security—particularly at our principal airports—is done through the Metropolitan police, who co-ordinate anti-terror work nationally, I am not yet convinced that it would be the right thing to do, but I am always open to considering change if it will deliver improvement.

National Policy Statement: Airports

Mark Pritchard Excerpts

Monday 25th June 2018 Commons Chamber

[Chris Grayling]

This project, including the development hub concept that Heathrow has been promoting, will make a contribution to the economy of all parts of the United Kingdom. I know the hon. Gentleman has a keen eye on making sure that the hub goes to Ballymena; I cannot make any promises to the airport on the plan, but I know the hon. Gentleman will carry on making that argument very robustly.

[Mark Pritchard (The Wrekin) (Con)]

Whether it is pre or post Brexit, does the Secretary of State accept that, to be an open, liberal, market economy, we need an airport that can compete against the likes of Paris, Schiphol, Istanbul, Dubai and Doha? On the issue of the regions, does he accept that Birmingham airport also has a part to play over the skies of the UK?

[Chris Grayling]

rose—

Train Services: Telford and Birmingham

Mark Pritchard Excerpts

Tuesday 6th February 2018 Westminster Hall

[Lucy Allan (Telford) (Con)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered train services between Telford and Birmingham.

It is an absolute pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Hollobone. It is also a great privilege to be able to come to this place and raise the concerns of the residents I represent, and to have a Minister come and listen to them. In this place, as we have just seen, we often debate issues of great national and global importance, and sometimes we forget to focus on the issues that have the greatest impact on the day-to-day lives of those we serve.

Telford, my constituency, is a vibrant, thriving and rapidly growing new town set in the heart of rural Shropshire, and this year it is celebrating its 50th anniversary. It has a unique identity and a proud industrial heritage as the birthplace of the industrial revolution. It is a shining example of what a successful new town can be. When Telford was designed half a century ago, it was intended to be self-sufficient, with all services, shopping and jobs provided locally. At that time, people were moving to Telford to get out of Birmingham, to live a better quality of life. However, the design of Telford in that way has meant that in many ways we are now cut off and somewhat isolated. Fifty years on, that self-sufficient model is not a model for a successful business centre, which requires excellent connectivity by both road and rail in order to thrive.

Telford has become a significant population centre and a very important business centre in the heart of the west midlands. It has inward investment, enterprise, commerce, advanced manufacturing and all sorts of hi-tech and new businesses coming to the area. Unemployment has halved and apprenticeships have doubled since 2010. With that, we should be experiencing good transport connectivity and rail networks fit for our growing new town, but sadly that is not the case.

Despite being surrounded by a rural hinterland of gorgeous Shropshire countryside, Telford is only 27 miles west of Birmingham, so we should be perfectly positioned for commuting to or leisure activities in Birmingham. We are next to the UK’s second largest city and should be able to capitalise on that opportunity, yet it takes us 47 minutes to get from Telford to Birmingham by train. We have only two trains an hour, and they are spaced so that if we miss the one at eight minutes past the hour, we have to wait 45 minutes for the next train. The issue is not just the spacing. Once we are on the train, the service is slow. It is a stopping service. The train chugs along reluctantly, stopping at every little Shropshire village that it passes along the way, and often it has only two carriages, which will inevitably be full to bursting at peak times.

As Telford has grown, more and more people have chosen to come and build their lives there, and more and more people want to travel to Birmingham for both leisure and work, so overcrowding is all too common, with people often standing for the whole of the 47-minute journey.

[Mark Pritchard (The Wrekin) (Con)]

Will my hon. Friend give way?

[Lucy Allan]

I shall be delighted to give way to my hon. Friend and constituency neighbour.

[Mark Pritchard]

My hon. Friend rightly highlights the issues of the track and the capacity of the trains. Does she agree that, in addition, companies such as West Midlands Trains, which won the new franchise, need to look at stations—in particular, Albrighton and access to it, and Wellington, which has 750,000 passengers a year but where there is leaking at platform 1 and no toilet facilities outside opening hours? Some of those basic passenger experiences also need to be looked at—experiences on platforms as well as on the tracks and in the carriages.

[Lucy Allan]

I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention. He is absolutely right. There is a great deal more work to be done and I feel that we have been somewhat neglected over the years in Telford and the surrounding areas. It is important that we address this now for the future of our area. That is why I have come to this place this afternoon.

The journey to Birmingham from London is one hour and 27 minutes or thereabouts, but trying to go on to Telford is a throwback to a completely different era. There is this slow, crowded stopping service, which takes 47 minutes, as I mentioned, and that is enough to move any commuter on to the road. The infrastructure investment has lagged behind our rapid population growth and our growth as a business centre. As you can imagine, Mr Hollobone, residents are regularly in contact with me to tell me about their struggles and their frustrations on a daily basis, so I want to give a voice to their experiences.

The train service between Telford and Birmingham simply does not meet the needs of a modern, thriving new town. In fact, Telford is the fastest growing new town in the country and the fastest growing town in the west midlands, yet we have had the same train service for as long as I and many others can remember, and it is not moving forward.

Transport Infrastructure: Lancashire

Mark Pritchard Excerpts

Tuesday 15th March 2016 Westminster Hall

[Seema Kennedy]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for attending, because shadow Ministers do not always have to come to 60-minute debates. I appreciate that. As I said in my speech, however, in the first three years of the Lancashire city deal, substantial infrastructure projects have already taken place and are making a real on-the-ground difference to road times. So our city deal is going very well.

[Mark Pritchard (in the Chair)]

I do not like to correct the hon. Lady, because she is rarely wrong, but shadow Ministers do have to attend 60-minute debates; they do not have to attend 30-minute debates. I just to ensure that we get that on the record. They may attend whatever debate they wish.

[Daniel Zeichner]

Thank you, Mr Pritchard. I am here very happily.

I have also listened closely to the other contributions to the debate, and I have consulted colleagues who know a little more about Lancashire than I do—I come from the east of England. I have heard worries from colleagues about cuts to bus services, as we have heard this afternoon, and about old recycled trains trundling along through east Lancashire. I must say that I have also heard talk of Chorley being given insufficient mention in transport plans, but my source will have to remain anonymous.

In January this year, the Lancashire enterprise partnership argued that connectivity, in Lancashire as elsewhere, is fundamental to maximising our growth potential. Sadly, however, Lancashire’s average economic performance is more than 20% below the national average, in terms of gross value added per resident. Clearly, in order to unlock and harness the economic power of Lancashire, we need far greater and more efficient delivery of promised projects to improve transport connectivity in the region than we have had so far—delivery, not just announcements.

The Secretary of State for Transport told us last week:

“I do not think I need to encourage the Chancellor on infrastructure spending. I have been incredibly successful in securing funding for infrastructure from the Chancellor, who certainly gets the importance of infrastructure investment, not least in the north. Indeed, it is his policy to pursue the northern powerhouse and to take forward transport for the north. That will have a transformative effect on transport between our northern cities and is something other parts of the country are looking to follow.”—[Official Report, 10 March 2016; Vol. 607, c. 424.]

The rhetoric is good, but the record is not so good. Despite the claims, the Government have a poor record on transport infrastructure. In 2010, they cut a huge £4 billion from the strategic road network, which created major uncertainty and saw existing schemes scrapped and delayed. Road maintenance budgets have fallen in real terms and we discovered recently that the much vaunted permanent pothole fund is yet to fill a pothole. We have bus passes preserved, but in too many cases there are no buses on which to use them, and manifesto promises to electrify key rail lines have been broken. Those are hardly the actions of a Government that certainly gets the importance of infrastructure investment.

Indeed, Britain is lagging behind other countries when it comes to delivering major projects. Embarrassingly, we are now 28th in the World Economic Forum rankings for infrastructure quality. We should be trailblazing for transport infrastructure, not trailing behind. The Government’s sluggish delivery of infrastructure projects in Lancashire aptly illustrates that failure.

In December 2014, nine new schemes to improve major roads in the north-west were announced, worth around £800 million. However, just one of those schemes has an updated cost estimate and that cost is careering out of control. Latest estimates on the Highways England website suggest that the M6 junction 19 improvements will cost between £192 million and £274 million, but in the “Road investment strategy: investment plan”, they were estimated to cost between just £25 million and £50 million. That single scheme is now projected to cost ten times as much as initially predicted.

What of the other eight schemes? When my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Northfield (Richard Burden) asked a question last week requesting the latest cost estimates for schemes announced in 2014, the question—as so often—was ducked. Will the Minister give us an update on the delivery and projected cost of those schemes now? We worry that those announcements were little more than part of a pre-election stunt. Also, the numbers keep changing. A £15.2 billion road investment strategy was announced in December 2014, yet in the Office of Road and Rail’s first “Highways England Monitor”, a different figure of £11 billion emerged. We suggest that the Government have been announcing those road plans since July 2013 and we need some action to accompany the announcements.

Transport Focus has identified that, in the north-west, car and van drivers’ top priorities for major road improvements are improved quality of road surfaces, safer design and upkeep of roads and better management of roadworks. While in both 2013 and 2015 the Government committed £6 billion

“to resurface 80% of the SRN and keep our network in top condition”,

it was reported last month that Highways England will not meet that target. Will the Minister now tell us where the billions have vanished and which projects have had to be scrapped?

On rail, too, Lancashire and the north-west is being let down. Labour supports the extension of high-speed rail services. The Secretary of State for Transport has said of HS2:

“When we start the service from Birmingham, it will be possible to link with conventional rail routes, rather as high-speed trains currently run from St Pancras to Ashford and then beyond. I hope that the northern parts of the United Kingdom will be served by HS2 straightaway.”—[Official Report, 28 January 2016; Vol. 605, c. 394.]

Indeed, Lancashire local enterprise partnership is planning to modernise Preston station as part of its HS2 growth strategy in order to accommodate HS2 trains and to reduce journey times between Preston and London from the current 128 minutes to 77 minutes by 2033 after phase 2 of HS2 is complete, but, unfortunately, we are still waiting for Ministers to confirm the route and the station locations for HS2 north of Birmingham. We were told that the route for phase 2 of HS2 would be confirmed by the end of 2014, but the target has now been deferred for at least another two years. That lack of certainty is damaging for residents, damaging for potential investment and damaging for the Government’s credibility when they profess their commitment to HS2 in the north.

We are full of questions today and we have some more. How can Lancashire and other areas in the north-west plan to benefit from HS2 when its route and station locations have not yet been confirmed? Why has that confirmation been kicked into the long grass and why are the Government letting down the north by dragging their heels?

Airport Expansion: East Anglia

Mark Pritchard Excerpts

Tuesday 12th January 2016 Westminster Hall

[Kelvin Hopkins (Luton North) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Pritchard. I congratulate the right hon. Member for Saffron Walden (Sir Alan Haselhurst) on launching this important debate. Not surprisingly, I will speak about London Luton airport, as I have been doing for a very long time. When I first came into this House 18 and a half years ago, there was a south-east airport strategy. Luton was constantly ignored and marginalised. It was not even mentioned in that report, largely because BAA dominated and had the ear of Downing Street, so Luton was just pushed out of the way. That has changed. Luton is now taken seriously as an airport. I am pleased to say that the Government are accepting that it will expand, and plans are now well advanced for Luton airport to expand.

There is a debate, of course, as to whether Luton is in east Anglia. The airport serves London and the south midlands and it could be argued that it is almost a Greater London airport, but it is in the eastern region so I will speak in those terms. Luton will never be a major hub airport because the topography means that the runway cannot be extended. It is limited in the number of passengers it can put through but it could almost double the number of passengers. There are currently just over 10 million a year and the airport could—indeed, it is planning to—go up to at least 18 million a year. It might even go beyond that with the parallel taxiway, expanded ground handling and, I hope, a fixed link to the mainline railway, which would be a tremendous advantage and something that I have argued for ever since I came to the House.

Rail connectivity has been mentioned regarding other airport areas and it is important for Luton as well. Luton Airport Parkway station has been open for a decade or so now but, unfortunately, only one East Midlands Trains service an hour stops there. East Midlands Trains runs the mainline trains—the express trains—and the airport wants four an hour to stop there. We are arguing strongly for that.

As excellent as the Thameslink local trains are when they are running well—I travel on them every day—they do not run early enough. The airport would like those trains to run earlier so that more people, particularly from London, can travel out to get business flights from London Luton airport early in the morning. They could fly out and back within a day, doing business in continental towns and cities and, of course, within the United Kingdom, but they need those earlier trains to get from London out to the airport to catch those early flights.

Oxford Economics has just produced an excellent report called, “The economic impact of London Luton Airport”, which I recommend to the Minister and his colleagues in the Department. It makes the case for Luton and says what splendid effects expansion will have. In time, London Luton airport could take more aircraft, especially with the modern, composite body aircraft coming through. Those aircraft will have shorter take-off and landing distances, higher load capacity and travel longer distances because they are lighter.

Although London Luton airport does mainly medium and short-haul flights at the moment, in time it could do some long-haul ones. I would hope that it could take some of the long-haul burden from other airports in the region, perhaps even including flights to the far east. Luton has a large population from Pakistan, for example. Why could we not fly to Karachi or Islamabad direct from Luton? I would like to think that that will happen one day. Luton is the base for easyJet and for Monarch, and Wizz Air flies a lot of people to and from eastern Europe. The airport has a good future and can make a major contribution.

I was lobbied recently by a group that argued that we do not need the third Heathrow runway, and that making maximum use of and expanding the existing airports—using them as efficiently as possible—would be sufficient for the future. I was, in part, persuaded by that argument, but I do not have the economic arguments at my fingertips and I know that the business community is keen on a new runway at Heathrow. There is possibly a case that we could just expand existing airports, including Luton, and the Government should look at that. It would be a useful way forward. I want to emphasise that Luton has a serious contribution to make to airport capacity in the east and, indeed, to London and the south midlands. I hope that the Government will continue to be supportive of the expansion of Luton.

[Mark Pritchard (in the Chair)]

I advise Members that the debate is due to end at 4.25 pm due to the additional time for the votes.

--- Later in debate ---

[Daniel Zeichner]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. I suspect that we can all agree on that. I assure the right hon. Member for Saffron Walden that we heartily agree with his argument about improving surface access. I am absolutely sure that local commuters would benefit, including those in my constituency. We can agree that the Government should invest in a West Anglia line, making life that little bit easier for many in our region.

To conclude, the Government need to stop dawdling and decide. Until they get their policy off the ground, we will be unconvinced that they are taking environmental concerns and capacity needs seriously. While in this state of flux, the Government could still take decisive steps to improve access to our country’s airports, helping provide short-term solutions to capacity and connectivity problems. Anything less would do a disservice to people and businesses in our region and across the UK.

[Mark Pritchard (in the Chair)]

Before I call the Minister, I remind him that, under the new Standing Orders for this Parliament, as I am sure he is aware, the mover of the motion is allowed two or three minutes to wind up the debate. I remind the mover of the motion that if he wants the question to be put formally, he must allow the Chair at least 30 seconds to do so.

Aviation Security

Mark Pritchard Excerpts

Thursday 5th November 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr McLoughlin]

We are trying to help them, and there are helplines available, including through the tour operators, but our first action must be to help those people who are actually stranded in Sharm el-Sheikh and to get them home. Communications are not down.

[Mark Pritchard (The Wrekin) (Con)]

Do not these tragic events underline the importance of being able to counter terrorism on the sea, in the air and on land, and the importance of being able to intercept electronic communications in order to keep British citizens safe?

[Mr McLoughlin]

It is a matter of paramount importance for any Government to be able to get information that protects and ensures the safety of British citizens, and that is something that all members of this Government, from the Prime Minister down, take very seriously indeed.