Oral Answers to Questions

Mary Glindon Excerpts

Thursday 8th June 2023 Commons Chamber

[Matt Western (Warwick and Leamington) (Lab)]

11. What assessment he has made of the adequacy of the roll-out of electric vehicle infrastructure outside of London. [R]

[Mary Glindon (North Tyneside) (Lab)]

18. What assessment he has made of the adequacy of the rollout of electric vehicle infrastructure outside of London.

--- Later in debate ---

[Jesse Norman]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his question—I thought he was going to mention the £3.29 million of capital funding that Warwickshire County Council has received in this area, but I take the general point he raises. When EV purchases are growing rapidly, as they are in this country, there will be moments of disconnect between the amount of infrastructure and the number of vehicles. We have certainly seen a bit of that recently, and we will perhaps continue to see it for a number of months or more, but what is interesting is that the new zero-emission vehicle mandate allows us to trigger billions of pounds of potential private investment, as I have mentioned. That is a world-leading intervention by Government, and I think it will pay long-term dividends in supporting the expansion of the electric car fleet.

[Mary Glindon]

EV charging in the north-east is falling behind the rest of the country. Most of the stock are older, much slower charging points that often do not work, and the ones that do are often at capacity. Will the Minister commit to working with Transport North East and our councils to ensure that owning and charging an electric vehicle continues to be a possibility in our region?

[Jesse Norman]

The point of the LEVI fund is precisely to create an equitable spread of public charge points around the country. The north-east is not badly served in the overall numbers per head of population, but we can always do better. I would be happy to meet any local organisations that are committed to that agenda, as the hon. Lady has suggested. She will know—if she has not done so, she can check in the transparency records—that we have been very active in dealing with local authorities, motorway service operators, charge point operators and others with an interest in this area.

Oral Answers to Questions

Mary Glindon Excerpts

Thursday 20th April 2023 Commons Chamber

[Mr Holden]

I thank my hon. Friend for welcoming me on my recent visit to her constituency where I saw the Army and Navy roundabout. The outline business case has been submitted by Essex County Council. It is currently proceeding through our assessment and decision-making process, which includes consideration by Ministers in my Department and also in the Treasury. I look forward to a positive announcement before too long.

[Mary Glindon (North Tyneside) (Lab)]

T5.   What assessment has the Minister made of measures to improve safety on public transport? In particular, does he commend PCC Kim McGuinness and NEXUS for creating an app to keep the public safe when travelling in the Northumbria force area?

[Mr Holden]

Safety on public transport is a vital matter. Like me, I am sure the hon. Lady is delighted to see the extra money that the Government are making available through our largest bus service improvement plan right across the country, and for the north-east of England, which covers her constituency and mine. Indeed, funds from that will be made available for transport safety in the future.

Oral Answers to Questions

Mary Glindon Excerpts

Thursday 24th November 2022 Commons Chamber

[Mr Holden]

My hon. Friend is a real champion for South East Cornwall and has been hammering away on this scheme for years. Highways England is developing a package of targeted safety measures for the A38, which will be considered for possible delivery within the third road investment strategy, RIS3. Although we are not considering further massive enhancements such as a bypass at this time, the work that we are doing at the moment would not prevent such a scheme in the future. I look forward to working with her on future road plans.

[Mary Glindon (North Tyneside) (Lab)]

T6.   Arriva in North Tyneside is letting down my constituents. Buses do not turn up or are cancelled at short notice. Surely enough is enough when pupils at North Gosforth Academy need counselling because they are so worried about getting to and from school. Can the Minister do something to force Arriva to be a more responsible and reliable service provider?

[Mr Holden]

I have had similar issues in my North West Durham constituency with Arriva over the past few months. It is looking at some of these plans and, as part of the bus service improvement scheme, £163.5 million will be heading to the north-east. We are just finalising the details on that and looking at how we can improve transport services in the future. I look forward to working with the hon. Lady and other colleagues across the region to deliver that.

Bus Services: Blaydon

Mary Glindon Excerpts

Wednesday 2nd November 2022 Commons Chamber

[Liz Twist (Blaydon) (Lab)]

I am pleased to have secured this Adjournment debate on bus services in my constituency of Blaydon, although I have to say that I am very disappointed that it is necessary. May I also welcome the Minister and my constituency neighbour to his place on the Front Bench?

Bus services are hugely important to communities across my constituency—from Chopwell and Blackhall Mill, Greenside to Blaydon, Birtley to Kibblesworth, and all the points in between. I know that, whenever changes are proposed to bus services, my office will receive very many phone calls, emails and Facebook comments about the changes.

This time, though, it has been of an altogether different order. There is just one bus company running in my constituency, Go North East. When it started its consultation on cuts to its bus services in May, the implications for my constituents were dreadful. The proposals cut off whole communities, such as Kibblesworth in the east of my constituency, dramatically reduced services to places such as Birtley, and ended popular routes around places like Winlaton, and even the route 69 to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Gateshead. I am sure the Minister knows of the problems with the Red Kite route from the Metrocentre to Chopwell and Blackhall Mill, through to Consett in the Minister’s own constituency.

It goes without saying, I hope, that when Go North East made this announcement in May, I began to work with all parties to ensure that communities in my constituency would not be left isolated and without bus services. The village of Kibblesworth is just 5 miles from the centre of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. What kind of position would we be in if such places had no local bus transport? Working with the public and helping to engage in the consultation, I had several meetings with Go North East and with Nexus, our local transport authority for Tyne and Wear. With the help of the public, and with Nexus, we were able to ensure that we could keep essential bus services through local public spending, but, sadly, we have lost many routes and face reduced timetables, resulting in overcrowded buses. The fact is that even those bus services, with support from Nexus, do not meet all the needs of my constituents, and I fear that there are yet more changes to come.

[Mary Glindon (North Tyneside) (Lab)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this Adjournment debate and echo what she says about bus services. In the north-west of North Tyneside, Arriva has cut the 43, the 44 and the 45—and now it is not only cutting but cancelling the buses it has cut. Surely people in North Tyneside and in Blaydon deserve better from our bus companies?

[Liz Twist]

I agree wholeheartedly with my hon. Friend. Indeed, there are a number of bus companies across the region, but I speak just of my constituency.

I am a bus user myself, in my constituency of Blaydon and here in London, and I have experienced the difficulties of bus cancellations. Only this week I nearly missed my connecting train to Parliament as the bus did not show up as expected. That is not just my experience, but that of many of my constituents.

Leigh has told me of her difficulties getting to work in the morning, with buses not turning up and, when they do, being overcrowded due to earlier cancellations. She told me that over recent months she has constantly been late for work as a direct result of instability in the local buses. Being late can mean deductions from pay for some workers and a poor work record to boot. Another constituent who has been in touch told me that he missed a hospital appointment, and another said that her son missed football training just this month due to buses not showing up.

Another constituent recently told me about needing to spend £15 on a taxi to get to a dental appointment as the bus was not running in time to make the appointment. The day after, they needed to spend a further £11.80 on another taxi as there was no bus to take them to hospital for an eye appointment. I am sure we can all agree that that is not good enough, and people across Blaydon, the north-east and, I suspect, the whole of England deserve a regular, reliable and affordable bus service to help them to get on with their daily lives. I could replicate those examples many times, as I am sure hon. Members will know.

I know that the bus operators are not causing problems for fun. I know that covid-19 led to restrictions on bus services and that even now many people are reluctant to use buses, despite measures taken to make them covid secure and encouragement from public health specialists to use active transport, including buses. I pay tribute to the bus drivers and other transport staff who did a great job during covid, facing difficult situations and putting themselves at risk in the early days. I want to make clear that I very much support them.

In the north-east, our bus patronage figures are better than those in some areas, but they are consistently still down to around 80% of pre-covid levels, which has had a real impact on the income of bus operators. Given that the bus operators are private companies, lower usage can make buses not viable. The Government did help during covid with the bus recovery grant, but that is due to end completely in March 2023. Sadly, the after-effects of covid on the industry will not have ended by then.

Probably one of the biggest causes of problems for my constituents is last-minute cancellations. I know that the Minister will also be familiar with that issue. For those who rely on buses, a last-minute cancellation of a bus or a route at a particular time can lead to very real problems in missing work or appointments, or just plain getting home from a night out. If we want—as we all do—to encourage greener transport as part of the effort to reduce carbon consumption, we need reliable, regular and affordable bus services. That environmental impact is a real issue. We need to reduce our car usage, not increase it because people do not think they can rely on bus services.

Other issues have emerged that the Government and the Department for Transport specifically can help with. Although I speak on behalf of my constituents, the issues I mention are replicated in many parts of the country. Bus companies face huge difficulties in recruitment. High driver turnover has plagued the sector in recent months and years, along with high levels of sickness, due to unprecedented backlogs in the NHS, and delays in driver licensing. All of those things have contributed to a growing problem of short-notice cancellations. That, in turn, is doing irreparable damage to the reliability and punctuality of bus services. That has a huge impact on the travelling public, with the latest bus punctuality figures standing at 83%, compared with the 95% target that the traffic commissioner set. That is directly impacting the lives of my constituents, causing the problems that I outlined with people missing appointments, being late for school and being unable to visit family and friends or even do the shopping.

My constituents need better bus services, and I am sure I would not be the only MP saying that if there were others here. In the north-east, the seven local authorities that work as Transport North East have come together to respond to the Government’s proposals for bus service improvement plans under the bus back better badge. The local transport authorities, working together and talking to the bus companies in our area, submitted plans for enhanced partnerships that are intended to deliver the aspiration for bus services that cover the routes that people need when they need them, with buses turning up on time and being affordable, and for what I believe are called multimodal, multi-operator fare schemes, which are very much like what we have in London, where passengers can just turn up and get a bus to where they need to be for work, health or leisure.

As the Minister will know, our bid was successful, although sadly at a lower level than we had hoped, with an indicative funding allocation of £163 million. That was last April, but we are yet to have confirmation that the north-east will actually receive that money and, if so, when. That is holding up much of the work on developing those enhanced partnerships—although work is going on between the parties—which would go some way to improving our bus services, bus fares and cross-operator arrangements and to reducing congestion, which also causes problems for bus reliability and which has been made much worse by more people choosing to drive rather than take the bus. So can the Minister please tell me tonight when that bus service improvement plan funding will be confirmed and when it will be released?

I spoke earlier of the bus recovery grant. Although I am glad that it was extended, albeit at a lower rate, we really need it to be extended further if we are not to see even further decline in bus services. We cannot afford to have a cliff edge and a huge drop between bus service improvement plan funding and the current arrangements. I ask the Minister to offer an assurance that the grant will continue and to press the Treasury on that matter.

There is also the issue of driver recruitment. Last year, the Government took some action over the shortage of HGV drivers. It is now time—beyond time, actually—to take real steps to assist with bus driver recruitment and retention. We need to tackle this issue if we are to retain essential bus services. I would be glad to hear the Minister’s proposals on that issue.

There is one more issue I would like to raise, and that is the future of zero-emission bus regional areas funding. I very much hope that the Minister can tell us that that funding will continue. Unless more ZEBRA funding is made available, the Government will not hit their target of getting 4,000 zero-emission buses ordered nationwide by the end of this Parliament, given that the current total is only 1,000 so far.

I want a bold transport plan for my constituency, for the region and for the country—one that improves our bus offer for communities, one that improves fares for my constituents instead of making them more expensive, and one that improves the reliability of local buses and does not frustrate customers. To achieve that bold plan, and for my constituents to benefit, we need the Department for Transport to come forward with clear answers and to allow our local organisations to do what they are so good at: delivering local transport offers that help people in their daily lives. Without those answers, I fear that we will continue to see our bus offer dwindle, patronage levels drop and working people—my constituents—suffer.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Holden]

I totally understand the hon. Lady’s concern, but I think we will have to wait for the financial statement to see whether there is anything further in that field. As I have said, however, I hope the BSIP funding will be coming through in the not-too-distant future in advance of that time—by the end of March.

I know that Nexus has been allocated nearly £13 million since March 2020 to help protect bus services in the north-east until December this year, in addition to the recovery funding we have provided directly to operators to keep things running. Over the long term, however, we are clear that the cycle of short-term recovery funding packages cannot continue indefinitely, and that is why we are looking at longer-term packages, including new arrangements between local authorities, whether franchising or closer working arrangements.

Driver shortages have been experienced in many different parts of the country recently. We have already increased the capacity for vocational driving tests, including through the recruitment of additional driving examiners, to make it easier for operators to recruit and train bus and coach drivers up and down the country. We continue to engage with the bus and coach operators, as well as with industry bodies such as the Confederation of Passenger Transport. In fact, when I was in Birmingham today, I did a video pushing some of its new driver recruitment campaigns, which I am really hoping will be successful. Go North East itself has just increased driver pay rates for existing and new bus drivers by 10%, as well as putting in some bonuses, to help with recruitment and retention.

[Mary Glindon]

I congratulate the Minister on his new role. Pay for drivers is still pretty low, and while some have had their pay increased, others have not. When they are earning only £10 an hour for the responsibility they have, surely the Minister must try to do something to improve that.

[Mr Holden]

I thank the hon. Lady for speaking out. Obviously, the Government have put in place a huge number of measures to help reduce taxes on lower-paid workers, but I think this is something for the bus operators to take up, and the current ongoing disputes with unions need to be talked through. I know Go North East seems to have reached a settlement, and I hope other bus operators will also do so in the near future.

I would like to take this opportunity to place on record my thanks to the drivers around the country for the vital work they do every day. They absolutely were key workers during the pandemic, as the hon. Member for Blaydon said, and they played such a vital role to ensure that those who were required to travel were able to do so. We know nevertheless that driver shortages continue, and we will continue discussions with the sector to do more in this area.

I turn briefly to the issue of fares, which we know with the rising cost of living are a particular issue for people. The schemes that have been put in place, in addition to the funding the Government are providing, are there to help stop fares rising as much as we possibly can. A key ambition of the national bus strategy is to make services cheaper, and the over £1 billion we have allocated to local transport authorities to improve services will also support this, as will the bus improvement scheme we are looking for in the near future. We are already beginning to see a return on this investment, with reduced fare measures being introduced in Greater Manchester and Liverpool, to name just a couple of examples.

As we come out the other side of the pandemic, the Government remain determined that great bus services should be available to everyone everywhere, including in the north-east. I echo the hon. Lady’s praise for bus drivers. In addition to the £3 billion that we are providing the sector to support improvements to bus services across the country, and the nearly £2 billion in pandemic funding recovery, the Government continue to provide funding to subsidise local bus services through other routes. We provide more than £200 million every year direct to operators through bus service operator grants, to help keep fares down and help them to run more extensive networks, and a further £42 million is provided to local transport authorities annually through those grants. There are 79 English local transport authorities outside London, and Nexus has received more than £1 million this year to subsidise services in the north-east. We are also providing funding to local authorities so that old and disabled people up and down the country can travel on buses for free—a scheme that currently costs around £1 billion a year.

Once again, I congratulate the hon. Member for Blaydon, my neighbour, on securing this debate and raising this important issue. I hope she will continue to hold my feet to the fire as the new junior Minister in the Department responsible for this issue. I will write to her in due course once the Department can confirm the final allocation to Transport North East to deliver its bus service improvement plan, and I would be delighted to visit her constituency in future. Beyond my own constituency work I will shortly visit the region to look at improvements to the A1 between Scotswood and North Brunton, to help ease congestion there, and hopefully that will have a knock-on impact on some of those services. I hope the hon. Lady will see that the Government are investing substantially to improve access to transport in the north-east, including our vital bus services, and I look forward to engaging with her in future as we seek to deliver improvements to buses in the north-east as well as the rest of England.

Leamside Line

Mary Glindon Excerpts

Tuesday 8th February 2022 Westminster Hall

[Mrs Hodgson]

I am very grateful to my hon. Friend for joining us, although it was freezing. We were in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Jarrow (Kate Osborne), who was unable to join us but did have representatives present.

The next location we visited was in my patch, in Washington. It was in the shadow of Penshaw monument, near the magnificent Victoria viaduct, which stretches over what is, in my opinion, the most beautiful part of Wearside. The viaduct was built in 1838, and it shows the scale of the engineering skill, the genius, the hard work and, through its beauty, the hedonism that characterised the region at that time, which was the powerhouse of global Great Britain. It is a shame to see such a feat of engineering go unused. It is incredible, however, to learn that with minimal reinforcements, the viaduct will be ready to take rail services, some 200 years after it was built.

The last time a train crossed that bridge was in 1992, when the line was mothballed after serving for around 30 years as a diversionary route for the east coast main line. It even took the Queen’s train across the Wear. However, it had been in infrequent use since 1963, when the infamous Beeching cuts were made, and Washington station has not been used since.

Washington was a very different place at that time. It was populated mostly by families who were dependent for work on the many pig farms that dot the area, or the chemical works. In 1963, when the rail link was taken away, a Government White Paper proposed that Washington be developed as a mark II new town, in order to stimulate faster progress and raise the scale and quality of the region’s urban development.

Washington was developed as a series of villages near-equidistant from Sunderland, Newcastle and Durham, and new industries, especially the automotive industry, thrived there. Hon. Members will be aware that Nissan is in my constituency. We should be careful not to romanticise or become overly nostalgic about how life was then, but there was a determined national policy and vision for the development of the town, and properly funded public services made the town prosperous. Graeme Bell, who worked on the town development corporation in the 1960s, wrote in 2019:

“Our brief for Washington New Town was to create ‘a town in which people want to live’. So simple, so complex. We started with the consultant’s masterplan which envisaged a place where the car was king. … a grid of dual carriageways with grade-separated junctions was to criss-cross the countryside to enable the 50,000 planned population to travel between home, work and play. This was to be Los Angeles-on-the-Wear!

A fore-runner of the design for Milton Keynes, the idea was that by taking the traffic out of the built-up areas, car-free spaces could be created where families and particularly children could safely walk to school, play and socialise. Within the grid were also to be factories and offices – jobs that were crucial to the success of Washington – and shops and parks, so residents wouldn’t need to travel great distances to live a good life.”

Those who live in Washington, or live and work around Washington, can see that vision of how it was intended to be. The latter part of the vision, however, was dismantled as industries such as the pits and the chemical works were decimated, and policies led to the loss of the good public services that fulfil the needs of modern life. The story of how we moved into that situation is one that we all know well.

Washington is now home to a number of areas identified as left-behind neighbourhoods, where social infrastructure is lacking. Residents have markedly worse socioeconomic outcomes than the residents of other equally deprived areas. The all-party parliamentary group for “left behind” neighbourhoods notes that “steady bus service decline” and low car ownership,

“combined with rail closures have led to these places being disconnected and cut off from essential services and amenities”.

This Chamber recently heard about the major cuts to Tyne and Wear bus services in a debate led by my hon. Friend the Member for Blaydon (Liz Twist). Those cuts now seem inevitable as covid-19 funding unwinds. With our local authorities being told to bear the brunt of keeping our public services afloat, I worry that residents dependent on those services risk being stranded. Meanwhile, 40% of households in left-behind neighbourhoods have no car; in England, the average is 26%.

Those circumstances make things even harder for residents of Washington, which, as I mentioned, was built at the dawn of the automotive age. The design of the town, combined with the current insufficient provision, means that the demands of modern society are not being met. Residents are being left behind; like populations in other towns across the country, they have to get out to get on. Great jobs, especially in the car industry, are on the doorstep, but they are highly competitive, and not all of them are accessible to those who live closest to them. Young people often find themselves having to move to neighbouring cities for good jobs, and that creates a de facto brain drain. For those who do not make it out, do not drive and cannot make the 40-minute bus journey into an education centre, opportunity is therefore stifled.

[Mary Glindon (North Tyneside) (Lab)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this really important debate. She expresses very eloquently the real problem for people in our area: if they do not have a car, their chances of getting the employment that they really want are cut massively. By not providing public transport and not agreeing to Labour’s plans, this Government are strangling opportunity for people in the north-east.

[Mrs Hodgson]

I thank my hon. Friend for her comments; she is right.

Leamside is the solution to these transport and connectivity problems. I welcome the sentiment behind the Government’s “Levelling Up” White Paper, published last week; it aims to level up the left behind, but the sentiment simply did not translate into tangible, real-world differences on the scale needed to level up the places that colleagues here and I represent. Connectivity matters. It is all about access. For the communities up and down this stretch of line, it is about access to education, jobs, business and leisure. It aids and expands access to economic benefits, health options, educational assets and cultural capital.

Oral Answers to Questions

Mary Glindon Excerpts

Monday 18th May 2020 Commons Chamber

[Rishi Sunak]

It is precisely the retail, hospitality and leisure sector that has received the most direct fiscal support from the Government through cash grants of £10,000 or £25,000 and a business rate holiday for the entire year—well beyond the point of reopening. That represents significant support, and the extension of the furlough scheme through to October gives those companies enough of a runway to grow back into a safe space.

[Mary Glindon (North Tyneside) (Lab)]

What plans he has to extend the scope of the coronavirus job retention scheme.

[The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Rishi Sunak)]

As I announced last week, the coronavirus job retention scheme has been extended by four months until the end of October.

[Mary Glindon [V]]

New starters not registered with HMRC before 19 March and agency staff workers are some of those who currently find they are in limbo when it comes to accessing the job retention scheme. What more can the Chancellor do to help these workers now facing hardship?

[Rishi Sunak]

When I announced the scheme, we said that those who were on real time information and had notified HMRC on 28 February would be eligible. That covers 29.5 million workers in this country. We found a way to extend that to 19 March—the day before the announcement was made. That protects the taxpayer against fraud and enables as many of those people to be included as possible. It brought another 230,000 people into the scheme. It is important to remember that this scheme now covers close to 30 million workers. As of the end of last week, 8 million people from about 1 million businesses are covered by the scheme and having their wages paid by the Government to protect their jobs and their future security.

Oral Answers to Questions

Mary Glindon Excerpts

Thursday 24th October 2019 Commons Chamber

[The Minister of State, Department for Transport (George Freeman)]

I am delighted to say that the noble Baroness Vere who deals with these issues and I met yesterday, and we both commend my hon. Friend for her leadership on this issue. This has been a very serious emergency situation, causing huge congestion in her part of the world, and we are determined to ensure that we get the solution right. That means not necessarily rebuilding what was there before, but getting a proper state-of-the-art solution.

[Mary Glindon (North Tyneside) (Lab)]

T7. At Highways England, a Government-owned company of which the Secretary of State is the sole shareholder, over 60 executives—mostly men—now enjoy six-figure salaries, while the vast majority of staff have been told to expect their pay increases to remain capped at 1% until 2025. When will the new shareholder be challenging company directors to address these pay disparities?

[Grant Shapps]

The hon. Lady may be surprised to hear that I agree with her. Some of these salaries—in both road and rail—have gone off the scale, and I am already addressing the issue.

Thomas Cook

Mary Glindon Excerpts

Wednesday 25th September 2019 Commons Chamber

[Grant Shapps]

It absolutely has occurred to us. There are 630 jobcentres and the Rapid Response Service, alongside the National Careers Service. They are already working with local partners in all the different areas to try to ensure, through the national employer partnership teams, that people get back into employment. I have already mentioned some of the other support to do with childcare and the tools needed when people are going for interviews. We absolutely stand behind that. I say to the hon. Gentleman and everyone in this House that, at a time of record employment and record low unemployment, I hope that people find that that support helps them into another job very quickly.

[Mary Glindon (North Tyneside) (Lab)]

Given the importance of the rapid response teams, will the Secretary of State say what extra Government resources they are receiving so that they can fully support these unemployed workers?

[Grant Shapps]

Yes, I will.

Oral Answers to Questions

Mary Glindon Excerpts

Thursday 13th July 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hayes]

Was it not Hegel, Mr Speaker, who said that nothing worthwhile is ever achieved without passion? My hon. Friend is certainly a passionate advocate for this scheme, which is important to her constituents. It is also important to the port, which she champions as well. We will look at these matters closely because port connectivity is vital if we are to make our maritime future as glorious as our maritime past.

[Mary Glindon (North Tyneside) (Lab)]

T4. Will the Minster say whether the new rolling stock for Merseytravel, HS2 and Crossrail will be procured using private or public finance, and why that is the case?

[Chris Grayling]

There has been a long tradition, under Governments of both parties, of a railway where we lease trains from the private sector. There have equally been occasions, as in the procurement of railway carriages for the east coast main line and the great western main line, when the Government have stepped in and taken that decision. We will have to look at which packages are available for those individual schemes. In the case of Merseytravel, the hon. Lady will have to talk to the Labour-controlled Merseyside councils.

Transport: North-east

Mary Glindon Excerpts

Wednesday 23rd November 2016 Westminster Hall

[Chi Onwurah]

I thank my hon. Friend, the Chair of the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee, for making such an important point, which I will come on to properly later. I agree wholeheartedly with the implication of his comments. The economic contribution of effective transport infrastructure for the north-east is not recognised in the same way as it is recognised in London and other areas of the south. That absolutely has to change if we are to have any hope of rebalancing our economy and making it more resilient and distributive across the country.

[Mary Glindon (North Tyneside) (Lab)]

My hon. Friend set out what she will speak about, but airport passenger duty is also important to the economics of the north-east. Our airports play an equally valid and massive role in helping our economy. We heard nothing today about what will happen with regard to Scotland, but it will be detrimental to our north-east airport if the Scottish Government reduce APD.

[Chi Onwurah]

Given the interest in and strategic importance of transport, I will focus on the issues I set out, but my hon. Friend makes a critically important point. Newcastle airport is a vital part of our economic infrastructure. Naturally, it competes with airports in Scotland. The lack of a decision today—I am not sure whether it has been kicked into the long grass or into orbit—is detrimental to economic certainty at a time of great uncertainty for many other aspects of our economic future.

Let me talk briefly about rail and the metro. I was nine or 10 when the metro came into being. It was a fantastic, highly advanced network that was ahead of its time—I think it was the first network in Europe or the world to be accessible to disabled people—but 40 years later we are using exactly the same rolling stock. Is that believable? Hitachi recently told me that it can deliver trains that would provide what we have been talking about—an extended light rail and metro service across a greater part of Tyne and Wear and the north-east. I hope the Minister will commit to that investment, because we need transport infrastructure and a metro without delays to support the kind of economy we want.

Most of Newcastle Central’s transport is about buses. We have a number of metro stops, but for most of the west of my constituency and parts of the north it is about buses. The failure of bus deregulation in Tyne and Wear has been so patently obvious for so many decades that it beggars belief that we are still debating it today. Outside my constituency office near Central station in Newcastle two No. 1 buses leave in totally different directions, one going north, one south—they both have the same number, because obviously that puts them at the head of some queue. It is totally incomprehensible to those who have lived in the city for many years, never mind visitors.

As my hon. Friend the Member for Houghton and Sunderland South discussed, we should not still be debating the lack of integrated bus transport in 2016, when we have seen the success of, for example, the Oyster card and the integrated system in London. I really cannot believe that the Minister will stand up to say that Tyne and Wear and my constituents do not deserve some control over a bus system that is so important to them simply because of the lack of a mayor.

Why is this all so important? As my hon. Friends the Members for Hartlepool (Mr Wright) and for Houghton and Sunderland South said, transport is important because it is part of our economic infrastructure and the north-east having critical mass.