Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they have taken, if any, to develop a process to select a partner for a Southern Railway link to Heathrow Airport following the recommendation in the report by Nichols and Agilia Southern Railway Link to Heathrow: market sounding, published on 19 December 2018; and what plans they have to establish a timescale for this process.

The Market Sounding Findings Report was published in December 2018, indicating significant interest for development and financing of Southern Access to Heathrow, the scheme formerly known as Southern Rail Link to Heathrow (SRLtH).

However, the responses to the Market Sounding did not build a feasible case for a Market Led approach to a Southern Access to Heathrow which could progress without government support such as direct subsidy or infrastructure usage guarantees.

Following the publication of this report, Government has undertaken work to fulfil the recommendations set out in the report. The recommendations were that the Department should provide greater detail on minimum requirements and objectives for a SAtH scheme and that the Department should consider an appropriate commercial model for early market involvement.

In November 2019, following extensive stakeholder engagement, the Department published eight Strategic Objectives for SAtH, setting out a narrative and minimum requirements for each.

The Department has also been working alongside external commercial advisers to develop an appropriate ‘market involved’ commercial model for the delivery of this scheme. We remain committed that a Southern Access to Heathrow should be a ‘Pathfinder Project’ with increased levels of market involvement and that this approach will likely be in the form of a development partner or development manager.

Following Ministerial approval and alignment to the anticipated HM Treasury Infrastructure Finance Review, the Department intends to provide further guidance regarding the commercial approach for SAtH in early 2021.