Infrastructure (Financial Assistance) Bill

Neil Carmichael Excerpts

Monday 17th September 2012 Commons Chamber

[Neil Carmichael (Stroud) (Con)]

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker, for calling me to speak in this important debate. This is a necessary piece of legislation, not least because we need to stimulate growth by showing that we are interested in developing our infrastructure. Such infrastructure investment has taken place in the past, but we need more, and it is important to understand what kind of investment is needed and how the process needs to unfold. We do not always remember that organisations involved in civil engineering, for example, want to see a little more confidence in the world of infrastructure investment, so that they can start to prepare for projects that are in the pipeline or that are urgently needed. We must recognise that some of those projects will stimulate further economic activity. Transport and energy are classic examples of sectors in which more investment is needed, as a stimulant to create even more exponential economic activity.

Let us take transport as an example. By investing in more transport infrastructure and ensuring greater connectivity, we give businesses a better foundation from which to grow. I know that from experience in my own constituency, where the news of the investment in the redoubling of the railway line between Kemble and Swindon on the Stroud to Swindon line has had an enormous impact. There is a real feel-good factor for the medium term in relation to the connectivity of my constituency. We need to see much more of that kind of signalling, and I welcome the thrust of the measures that relate to transport.

Another critical area whose importance we do not always recognise when we talk about investment is the energy sector. Again, the word “connectivity” is important, but we must also understand the need to provide a framework for the right kind of investment, as well as ensuring, as the Bill does, that guarantees can be put in place for those investments. For example, in the renewable energy sector, we need to think about the infrastructure required to get the energy from where it is created to the place where it will be used.

We must also encourage new technologies by providing the right policy platform to enable them to be developed and promoted. A good example is energy storage. In some sectors, we have the kind of technology that could make energy storage a realistic prospect. I have told the House before about liquid air, but I will tell it again. Liquid air provides a significant way of storing energy, but we need the infrastructure to achieve that. The Bill could provide the necessary encouragement for that to happen, and for an interest in energy to be developed.

[Chris Leslie]

Is it hot air?

[Neil Carmichael]

It is certainly not hot air. It is very cold. The technology is well worth looking into; it is all about the transfer of pressure.

The hon. Member for York Central (Hugh Bayley) talked about the proximity of the Bill to private finance initiatives and public-private partnerships, and I agree that that proximity exists. We need to learn lessons, however, from our experience of the more complicated and convoluted PFI schemes. We need more flexibility, and we need to give the public and private sectors the confidence to think, “Let’s get this done”. We need to generate a can-do approach, and the Bill will go some way towards achieving that.

[Mr Newmark]

Does my hon. Friend agree that the Government should not do all the heavy lifting when it comes to funding these projects? It is important that the private sector should play its role in ensuring that public projects get funded, and that it should act as a partner in any funding of infrastructure projects.

[Neil Carmichael]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The Bill provides a comfort zone for the private sector that will enable it to get involved and to work as a partner with the public sector to deliver the kind of infrastructure that we desperately need.

These arrangements have worked before; the Hoover dam was a good example. It involved hydro-electricity, a relatively modern form of energy, and it is still generating electricity today. No one would claim that it was a panacea, but it was certainly an example of the right kind of investment, and the right kind of relationship between the public and private sectors. We can look to other examples and say, “Yes, this is the way forward to enable the private sector to give comfort.”

In parallel to the Bill, we also need the appropriate policy frameworks to give the sectors a sense of the direction in which we are going. I have mentioned energy, but that applies to transport as well. For example, I hope that the Government will come up with a realistic solution to the question of airport capacity, and that we can be bold enough to recognise that more capacity is needed. We should be thinking big-time about some sort of solution in the Thames estuary or elsewhere. That solution should also include regional airports, and we need a policy framework and the necessary medium-term planning to allow all that to happen.

That brings me to local authorities. It is no good simply saying that we are entering happy times for investment if local authorities do not recognise that they have a role to play in delivering the necessary planning outcomes, and that they need to work together to determine where the most important infrastructure projects should be placed. There must be relationships between local authorities as well as within them if we are to deliver the desired outcomes.

The Bill will motivate the private sector to get involved; it should encourage those who are interested in infrastructure to feel that forward planning is taking place and that they should get involved in the process. I hope that the Government will continue to develop the idea that we need co-operation between the private and public sectors, and that together we will end up with some worthwhile outcomes.