Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether her Department is taking steps to use rail freight to help support the building of new homes.

Rail freight is a highly efficient way of transporting goods and it will be critical to supporting the Government’s target to build 1.5 million homes by the end of this parliament.

The mode used to transport materials for housebuilding is a commercial decision for developers to make. However, in the financial year 2023-24, 5.3 billion net tonne kilometres of construction materials were moved by rail, an increase of 8% on the previous year.