Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the case for (1) ensuring certainty in the programme for transport infrastructure investment; (2) changing the regional balances in transport infrastructure investment as between London and the South East, and other regions in England; and (3) cancelling Crossrail 2 and investing a similar amount in the north of England and other English regions.

The Government recognises the importance of securing long-term transport infrastructure investment, as outlined in the recently published National Infrastructure Strategy. Though the scope of the Spending Review this year was refocused on supporting the government’s response to Covid-19, the Department secured over £60 billion in multi-year investment – providing certainty for major transport infrastructure programmes.

Investing in transport infrastructure is critical to increasing connectivity and driving regional growth, which are central to this government’s ambition to level up the UK. The Spending Review delivered investment for regions across the entire UK - including announcing a new £4 billion levelling-up fund, £4.2 billion for city regions across England as part of Intra-City Transport Funding and a commitment of over £22 billion to fund HS2 Phases One, 2a and 2b Western Leg to deliver essential North-South connectivity, greater capacity and shorter journey times.

The Department is also working to implement the findings of the Green Book Review. The refreshed Green Book will support levelling up by ensuring that projects are being assessed first and foremost on how well they deliver policy objectives rather than focusing on a purely economic assessment. For the first time, business cases for all proposals will have to set out how they will impact different places aligning with relevant local strategies and major interventions in the area.

Transport projects are kept under continual review. Given current affordability constraints, Transport for London has confirmed that they are not in a position to prioritise investment in Crossrail 2, and the Government has agreed that they will stop development on the project. This frees up investment to raise the performance of public transport networks in our regional cities.