Kirkstall Forge Railway Station

Norman Baker Excerpts

Wednesday 29th June 2011 Westminster Hall

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Norman Baker)]

I welcome the chance to engage twice in one week with the hon. Member for Leeds West (Rachel Reeves), and I congratulate her on securing this debate. It is on a subject that is of great interest to her existing constituents and to those who may contemplate moving to the Kirkstall Forge area in the years to come, as well as to my hon. Friend the Member for Pudsey (Stuart Andrew) and others in the area.

I assure the hon. Lady and her constituents that the coalition Government have rail at the heart of their transport strategy. We recognise that railways can contribute fundamentally to the key overarching objectives of the Department for Transport, which are to foster economic growth and reduce the carbon emissions of the transport sector. The railways can also help to reduce our fiscal deficit, if the money is appropriately deployed. Given the significant pressure on public spending, we are determined to maximise the value of that expenditure, as people would expect.

Investing in our rail network will help to cater for the rapidly growing number of people making rail journeys in all parts of the country. Our rail network is essential in allowing millions of people to get to and from work every day, and in moving people around the country for business and for leisure or pleasure. Between 1994 and 2009, the number of miles travelled by rail passengers in Britain every year nearly doubled from 18 billion to 32 billion, and that growth shows no sign of slowing. It has been resistant to the problems in the economy of the last three or four years.

Transport did well in the comprehensive spending review, and over the next four years we will invest over £30 billion in transport projects across Britain, with £18 billion being committed to the railways. There is significant pressure on public spending, so we are determined to maximise the value of our expenditure.

The Government welcome the publication of Sir Roy McNulty’s independent study on rail value for money. The study found that although performance and safety have improved markedly over the last decade, our railways are 40% more expensive per passenger mile than those of our European competitors. The Government are considering the recommendations that are directed to them, and will deliver their response later this year.

In parallel, the Government are developing a wider rail strategy to ensure an affordable, sustainable, safe and high-quality railway that will deliver a better deal for taxpayers and for fare payers. That strategy will clearly set out the roles of Government, both central and local, of the train operators and of Network Rail in securing the future of the railway.

The Government have ambitious plans for investment in rail infrastructure and rolling stock. That is possible only because the Government have taken the tough decisions necessary to protect future investment in the UK’s rail industry. Over the next four years, we will provide £14 billion to Network Rail to support capital maintenance and infrastructure investment. We are funding and delivering the Thameslink programme, virtually doubling the number of north-south trains running through central London at peak times. About 600 new carriages will be provided for the Crossrail project, and up to 1,200 new carriages will be procured for Thameslink. A further 650 carriages will have been delivered to the network by March 2014.

On 1 March, the Secretary of State announced that Scotland, Wales and northern and south-west England are to get a fleet of new trains, and more reliable rail links to London. That will create thousands of jobs, boost the economy and improve services for passengers. He gave the go-ahead for the £4.5 billion intercity express programme and for the plans to electrify the Great Western main line between Cardiff, Bristol and Didcot.

Subject to consultation, the Government will proceed with plans for a national high-speed rail network, spending over £750 million during the period of the spending review. When complete, that will dramatically reduce journey times and increase capacity on routes between Britain’s major population centres; it will bring Birmingham within 49 minutes of London by rail, and Manchester and Leeds—the latter will be of particular interest to the hon. Lady—to within about 80 minutes. Connections to existing lines will also be included, allowing direct high-speed services to our major towns and cities. The capacity released on existing lines would allow an expansion of commuter, regional and freight services.

[Mr George Howarth (in the Chair)]

Order. I have been listening carefully to the Minister, and I realise that he is setting out the context of Government expenditure on transport. However, at some point soon he needs to speak on the specific subject of the debate, which is Kirkstall Forge railway station.

[Norman Baker]

Indeed, Mr Howarth. However, as the hon. Lady finished five minutes early, I have taken the opportunity to put the matter into the general context of our rail policy.

Suffice it to say that we are driving out inefficiencies on the railways and reducing costs. However, we are making what I believe is the biggest investment in rail, including in the Leeds area, that we have seen since Victorian times. That should give the hon. Lady some comfort. There is a hard-nosed economic and environmental case for investing in rail. I turn now to Kirkstall Forge.

A new station at Kirkstall Forge has been a high priority for Metro, the West Yorkshire passenger transport executive, for many years, and I know that considerable progress has been made towards achieving that objective. The coalition Government are committed to localism, and that determines our approach to local rail. We realise that local rail networks have to adapt in order to serve new and expanding communities, which is why we welcome PTEs taking the initiative. PTEs, working with local enterprise partnerships, where they exist, are best placed to identify the needs of local areas, and to identify and secure funding for new lines, new train services or stations, if they believe that that is the best way to meet local transport needs and the wider objectives of economic growth, housing growth and carbon reduction.

The development at Kirkstall Forge is a large one, and in the spirit of localism it is entirely right that Metro should take the lead in developing solutions to the transport issues that the development will give rise to. Metro has a good record in identifying sustainable transport solutions. For example, we welcome Metro’s and Leeds city council’s commitment to more sustainable solutions for the city region, as set out in the local transport plan 3, “My Journey”. We have backed their judgment by providing £12 million towards the cost of the Leeds station southern entrance, which will do much to improve access to new major housing and commercial developments to the south of the city centre.

The proposed Kirkstall Forge station will complement the A65 Kirkstall road quality bus corridor, to which the Department will be making a contribution of £19.8 million, and that is on track to open in 2012. It is a busy and congested corridor that is heavily used by commuters, so these two schemes will help to provide a sustainable alternative to car commuting.

The hon. Lady asked specifically about the shift from the car. The Department recognises, first, that we have to use transport to drive economic growth. Secondly, however, we have a responsibility to use transport in a way that reduces carbon emissions. We are certainly keen to secure a reduction in carbon emissions, and that could mean a modal shift from car to rail, particularly until the road transport network has been decarbonised, which is some way off.

Metro is seeking funding from the Department’s budget for local authority major schemes. The outcome of the spending review is testament to our commitment to such schemes. We recognise that well-designed proposals can make a big contribution to economic growth.

We plan to spend more on local authority major schemes in this spending review period than the average spend over the past 10 years. Nevertheless, that cannot fund all the schemes from the previous regional funding allocations process that promoters wished to deliver, and we will need to rationalise. Put simply, we inherited a completely unrealistic pipeline of schemes, and we have had to rationalise those as best we can. For the future, we want to move away from a top-down approach to determining local transport needs, working towards a more devolved system for funding local authority major schemes, with local enterprise partnerships taking on an important role. However, for this spending review, we need to rationalise the previous Government’s programme, so we have invited final bids from the promoters of 45 schemes from the previous programme. The Leeds rail growth package is one such scheme, and we believe it will now consist of new stations for both Kirkstall Forge and Apperley Bridge. Metro will submit a final bid in September to the Department, which we will consider alongside the others we expect to receive, including bids for maintenance for the Leeds inner ring road and the New Generation Transport trolley bus scheme, and will make an announcement in December 2011. I hope that that helps to confirm the timetable which the hon. Lady asked about.

Although I cannot indicate how successful the Leeds growth package bid might be, because it is a competitive process and obviously the bids are not in yet, we will look favourably on schemes for which promoters have reduced their funding requests to the Department. I can confirm that, and I note the comments that the hon. Lady made about increased private contributions. I am aware that a developer contribution has been secured towards Kirkstall Forge station and that Metro is scaling down the size of the bid by removing some additional car parking schemes at stations elsewhere.

In its bid, Metro will also have to demonstrate that the scheme provides value for money and that there is no ongoing cost to the Department arising from the stations’ introduction. That is an important point, as our policy is that new stations should cover their ongoing costs from newly generated fare income. However, I understand that Metro is confident that over time that will be achieved.

It is proposed that Kirkstall Forge and Apperley Bridge stations will be served by inserting calls in the services that run between Bradford Forster Square and Leeds stations, which have spare capacity to accommodate the new users from the stations. It is for Metro to discuss with Northern train operating company and Network Rail how those calls are to be accommodated within the timetable, given that the additional stops will increase end-to-end journey times by about four minutes in each direction. The good news is that we have recently agreed to fund the provision of additional carriages on the electrified routes to the north-west of Leeds, so Metro and Northern are now in a better position to determine whether further rolling stock will be required to enable the calls to be made.

I have tried to cover the points that the hon. Lady raised. She explicitly asked whether I would take into account wider economic factors in determining applications—yes, we will absolutely do that. The Secretary of State recently published a new transport business case appraisal system, which was announced to Parliament through a written ministerial statement. The hon. Lady may want to get a copy of that. She will be able to see the factors we now take into account to determine transport projects. Broadly speaking, the changes made to the valuation process have increased the value of carbon, so, on the face of it, they marginally benefit public transport schemes and marginally disbenefit road schemes.

The hon. Lady asked about private contributions to other schemes in the development pool. That information is simply not available yet, because we do not know what the final bids from the other schemes will be. The deadline for all bids is September, and obviously we will not be able to make a judgment until they all come in. I reiterate that private contributions are important. We are looking for buy-in, not only from the local transport authority, but from the wider community. Private contributions are therefore important, not simply to reduce the call upon the taxpayer, but to demonstrate commitment to the particular project for which an application is being made. In all the bids that come forward, we will be looking for details of private contributions, the support of the local community, and evidence that there have been sensible attempts to reduce costs wherever possible.

The hon. Lady appears to be confident that Metro has addressed those issues, and if it has, that will count in its bid’s favour, as and when it comes in.

[Rachel Reeves]

I welcome the answers the Minister has given.

To return to the wider economic benefits of the development, a point that I tried to get across was about deprivation in that part of Leeds West, particularly on the Hawksworth Wood estate—I mentioned the proportion of free school meals—and in Bramley, which has one of the highest proportions of young people not in education, employment or training. As well as the aggregate externalities and economic benefits that would come from the development, will the Department look at the importance of economic regeneration and how the returns in areas such as Kirkstall or Bramley might benefit some of the most deprived communities when compared with developments in areas where there are already good jobs and low levels of unemployment?

Norman Baker: As a Government, we recognise the need to support areas where there is economic deprivation. If we applied a simple economic test to everything, there would frankly be a lot of investment in south-east England, because it has a very good rate of return, and not a lot elsewhere. We do not do that. We try to ensure that we take into account a wide range of factors and ensure a modal balance of transport investment, as well as a regional balance. The hon. Lady is right to put those points on the record. They have been noted for when the Department considers the matter, as and when the bid comes in from Metro.

The Secretary of State’s approach to developing a package of bids to be approved has been successful in driving down costs on the bids that have been agreed so far. That has meant that the number of bids that have been able to be approved so far has been greater than if that discipline had not been applied. By driving down costs, we have been able to approve more schemes than would otherwise have been the case, so we have been able to make more progress than many dared hope given the unrealistic pipeline we inherited. That approach is not simply good value for money for the taxpayer, but helpful in spreading the money as widely as possible.

In conclusion, I am grateful to the hon. Lady for raising the issue. I know that there is genuine concern in her constituency and others that the proposed station goes ahead without delay.

[Rachel Reeves]

I have some more questions before the Minister concludes. What is the total pot of money available for the 45 schemes that remain in the development pool? I recognise that due to savings and increased private sector contributions costs may have fallen since the projects went into the development pool, but how much were they worth then? What is the difference between the amount of money in the pool and how much the schemes were bidding for? Does he have that information?

[Norman Baker]

I am not sure that I can give that detailed information now, but I shall write to the hon. Lady. The amount of money available is about £700 million—that is a rough figure for her to consider. I will drop her a line to give her the specific information she asked about.

The debate has been useful. I look forward to receiving a final bid from Metro in September. It will be properly and objectively analysed according to the criteria that Metro has been notified about, which I have referred to today. Decisions will be made known to MPs and others in December.