Heidi Alexander MP: speeches

Speeches

• 9 Dec 2025 · Railways Bill · Hansard source

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  I do agree. That needs to be a priority, and it will be at the heart of what GBR does. For too long, the railways have been a source of national parody rather than national pride—a symbol of public services not working as they should, and of life unnecessarily made harder—but 200 years after the first railways transformed the country, we have a once-in-a-generation chance to restore, renew and reimagine the potential of the industry, and to place it at the centre of the Government’s plans for national renewal. The rising living standards, greater opportunity and greener economy that we promised at the last election all rely on a growing, high-performing railway, a railway that connects us to the things that matter most, connecting people to jobs, businesses to growth, families to days out, and all of us to our loved ones; a railway with public service at its core and that is frankly obsessed with the needs and wishes of passengers, and one that we can finally be proud of again. That is the railway that Britain deserves, and the one that we will deliver. I commend the Bill to the House.

• 9 Dec 2025 · Railways Bill · Hansard source

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  Next year the right hon. Gentleman’s constituents will have their fares frozen for the first time in 30 years. Under the last Government, fares went up by 60% between 2010 and 2024. I can only assume that he was not listening to the reply I gave to the hon. Member for Twickenham (Munira Wilson).

• 9 Dec 2025 · Railways Bill · Hansard source

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  I will make some progress. For too long, the priorities of passengers and the industry have not been one and the same, and that has to change now. Alongside GBR, we will create the passenger watchdog—a strong, independent voice for the customer. It will set tough standards, independently monitor the experience of passengers, investigate persistent issues, and relentlessly push for a more accessible railway.

• 9 Dec 2025 · Railways Bill · Hansard source

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  I will make progress; I will give way some more in a minute. We have to be honest about the state of our railways; they are still a bit of a mess. Underlying structural problems, fragmentation and complexity remain, and passengers still pay the price. That is why this Bill matters. It will sweep away the fragmentation and dysfunction that have plagued the railway for too long, and will bring the 17 organisations involved in running the railway together into one public body—Great British Railways, which is the directing mind that this industry has long called for. GBR will co-ordinate much of the network, including track, train, and revenue and cost. Tickets will be simpler, costs will be reduced, growth will be prioritised, journeys will be made more reliable, and every decision will be taken in the interests of passengers, taxpayers and freight operators. The railway will look and feel different, too. Passengers will no longer have to navigate the mind-bendingly complex system of organisations, which has been designed to benefit private companies, at the cost of decent services. We will wave goodbye to the blame factory that has come to define the industry, whether it is the armies of lawyers arguing over whose fault a delay is, or questions about whose responsibility it is to fix a broken lightbulb. Instead, we will see one railway and one team, with one mission: to deliver better public journeys.

• 9 Dec 2025 · Railways Bill · Hansard source

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  I would be very happy to ask the rail Minister to meet my hon. Friend to have that discussion. One of the other biggest concerns of passengers is the baffling array of fares and ticketing, which is why GBR will drag the current complex system into the 21st century. A new GBR website and app will allow passengers to buy tickets, check train times and access support, all in one place. There will be no booking fees and no confusion—just simple fares that offer the best value for money.

• 9 Dec 2025 · Railways Bill · Hansard source

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  I would be happy to arrange that meeting. This issue was raised with me when I visited Norwich, on the day that Greater Anglia transferred into public ownership. As my hon. Friend is aware, the delivery of East West Rail will happen in three stages. We first need to get to Cambridge; after that, I would be happy to have that discussion, but it will take a huge amount of work to get us from where we are today to seeing trains running between Oxford and Cambridge, which has to be the priority.

• 9 Dec 2025 · Railways Bill · Hansard source

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  I will give way to the hon. Member for Bicester and Woodstock (Calum Miller), then I will make some progress.

• 9 Dec 2025 · Railways Bill · Hansard source

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  I give way to the right hon. Member for Dwyfor Meirionnydd (Liz Saville Roberts), who has tried to get in a number of times.

• 9 Dec 2025 · Railways Bill · Hansard source

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  I will give way, and then I will make some progress.

• 9 Dec 2025 · Railways Bill · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend makes a compelling case, which has also been put to me by Mayor Tracy Brabin and the leader of Bradford council, Councillor Susan Hinchcliffe. I hope to say more about improving connectivity in the north of England in the weeks and months ahead.

• 9 Dec 2025 · Railways Bill · Hansard source

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  Decisions about open access services, under the current model, are for the Office of Rail and Road to take. Network Rail supported the service that the right hon. Gentleman mentions, but the Office of Rail and Road took a different decision. [ Official Report , 11 December 2025; Vol. 777, c. 8WC.] (Correction) If a new proposal comes forward, I am sure that Network Rail will look at it closely. We are keen to improve connectivity wherever we can. We are bringing forward this legislation because Great British Railways needs to take the track access decisions, so that we can ensure that decisions are taken in the best interests of passengers overall.

• 9 Dec 2025 · Railways Bill · Hansard source

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  I do think we need to move some of the freight that we currently move by road to the railways. The Bill will require the Secretary of State to set a freight growth target, and Great British Railways will have a duty to have regard to that target when it exercises its statutory functions, so that is at the heart of this Bill. Finally, I will talk about access to the rail network. Great British Railways will be responsible for getting the best use out of the finite network capacity that we have, which is essential if we are going to improve performance, reduce disruption and allow more communities to be served by the railway. We want customers to be given the best choice of services and routes; this will be a core principle of Great British Railways, so it will work with open access and freight operators to harness the best of the private sector, taking access decisions across the whole network in a way the current regulator never could. We saw the urgent need for change only last week, with the ridiculous prospect of an empty 7 am train running from Manchester to London—a decision by the regulator that has now thankfully been reversed. However, let me be clear: GBR will not be allowed to act unchecked. The Office of Rail and Road will have robust powers to hold GBR to account, and all decisions GBR makes regarding access and charging will be appealable to the ORR. This will ensure that GBR’s decision making is fair, considered and transparent across the board. Before I finish, I draw the attention of the House to our accessibility road map, which was published alongside the Bill. My colleague Lord Hendy, the rail Minister, wrote in that publication that “for too many people…the railway remains a system of barriers. That must change.” I could not agree more. As far as I am concerned, a railway that fails to serve everyone is not fit for purpose—which is why the Bill also gives GBR and the passenger watchdog clear duties, ensuring that the needs of disabled people are at the heart of decision making.

• 9 Dec 2025 · Railways Bill · Hansard source

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  I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his remarks, and for the tone in which he has made them. I put on record my thanks to Scottish Minister Fiona Hyslop and the Welsh Transport Minister, Ken Skates, for the way in which they have engaged with me and my officials during this process. I know that my colleagues across Government share that determination to do what is right for the country as a whole. I was setting out how GBR will work closely with mayors. We will reach bespoke partnership agreements to match the specific transport needs of different communities, and we will of course continue to work with the devolved Governments in Scotland and Wales, who I am pleased have lent their full support to the aims of the Bill.

• 9 Dec 2025 · Railways Bill · Hansard source

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  I will make some progress and I will give way to the right hon. Gentleman later. The Government’s determination is to build a railway that is greater than the sum of its parts. It is not just about getting us from A to B; the railway is a route to aspiration, jobs and higher living standards right across this country. My message to passengers is simple: better times and better trains lie ahead.

• 9 Dec 2025 · Railways Bill · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is completely right to highlight that. The travelling public want their journeys to be convenient and easy, and the roll-out of pay-as-you-go and contactless ticketing removes some of the friction in the system. Through Great British Railways, we also want to simplify the ticketing structure, because we have a baffling array of millions of fares and ticket types. We need to sort that out, and we will, through this legislation, and through our ambition for the railways.

• 1 Dec 2025 · Budget Resolutions · Hansard source

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  I will certainly undertake to have those conversations with colleagues.

• 1 Dec 2025 · Budget Resolutions · Hansard source

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  In the interests of time, I will not give way. It is because we understand what life is like for ordinary people that we have taken decisions in this Budget to provide real help with the cost of living. We know that an average household spends more than 10% of its income on getting around, getting to work and school, and making essential daily trips. That is why this Budget has not only extended the fuel duty freeze beyond the spring of next year, but restated our commitment to protect the bus fare cap. For the first time in 30 years, we are freezing rail fares. If someone has a season ticket, is a commuter on a peak return or is travelling off-peak between major cities, they will get to keep more of their hard-earned cash. It is good news for millions of passengers, some of whom will save hundreds of pounds a year. That means extra money in people’s pockets, and it means that we will continue to keep a lid on everyday costs that drive inflation.

• 1 Dec 2025 · Budget Resolutions · Hansard source

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  It is a privilege to respond to today’s debate on the Budget. We have heard some excellent contributions from many colleagues, particularly those on this side of the House, and I hope my hon. Friends will forgive me if I do not mention them all by name. I will respond in writing to the specific questions put to me by my hon. Friends the Members for Ellesmere Port and Bromborough (Justin Madders), for Bathgate and Linlithgow (Kirsteen Sullivan) and for Brentford and Isleworth (Ruth Cadbury). We have also had some thoughtful and measured contributions from Opposition Members, including the hon. Member for Dorking and Horley (Chris Coghlan) and the right hon. Member for Belfast East (Gavin Robinson). It is a shame that some of the other contributions from those on the Opposition Benches can best be described as heavy on indignation and light on contrition. You would have thought that the right hon. Members for Salisbury (John Glen) and for North East Cambridgeshire (Steve Barclay), as well as the shadow Transport Secretary, had no responsibility whatsoever for the economic inheritance that the last Government passed on to this one. We all know that the last Parliament saw living standards fall, and it is not a record to be proud of. This Government were elected on a promise of change, which was the demand of a weary public. People were fed up with rising bills and falling real wages, fed up with schools and hospitals that had been cut to the bone, and fed up with trains and buses that they could not rely on. The economy—indeed, the country—felt broken in the very places that mattered most. In this Budget, I am proud that we are answering the public’s call for change, and making the fair and necessary choices to repair our public finances and deliver on the nation’s priorities. We are cutting the cost of living through cheaper energy bills, frozen prescription charges and frozen rail fares. We are putting record investment into our NHS, bringing waiting lists down and creating 250 new neighbourhood health centres. We are righting a moral wrong by lifting hundreds of thousands of children out of poverty, not just through school breakfast clubs and by lifting the minimum wage, but by scrapping the two-child universal credit cap. And we are doing all this while meeting our fiscal rules. After years of decline, this is what rebuilding our country looks like.

• 1 Dec 2025 · Budget Resolutions · Hansard source

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  I am not going to give way. Budgets are about choices, and I know that not everyone agrees with our decision to freeze rail fares. Indeed, just days before the Budget, I received a letter from the shadow Transport Secretary effectively proposing a 4.8% hike in fares. I considered his request, but an increase in line with the retail prices index, as the right hon. Member pretty much suggested, would have put passengers’ fares up by hundreds of pounds next year. We should not be surprised that the shadow Transport Secretary wanted passengers to pay more—after all, his party increased fares by 60% when it was in office—but Labour Members believe in cutting the cost of living and putting money back into passengers’ pockets. As we set up Great British Railways, bringing together 17 different organisations into one public organisation, we will build a railway where passengers, not profits, come first. While rail may often dominate newspaper headlines, this Government will never ignore the roads that carry most of our daily journeys. That is why, earlier this year, I gave the green light to the lower Thames crossing. After years of being stuck in planning limbo under the Conservative Government, it is now set to become the largest road building project in a generation. Thanks to this Budget, we are confirming a further £891 million of public funding, after which the private sector will take forward construction and long-term operation. Along with our commitment to extend the docklands light railway to Thamesmead, this is further proof that this Government are firmly on the side of the builders, not the blockers. Before we came into power, our roads were a symbol of national decline. Poorly maintained and riddled with potholes, they were a nuisance at best and downright dangerous at worst. That is why, by the end of this Parliament, we will commit over £2 billion annually for local road maintenance, doubling funding since coming into office. We will fill millions of potholes every year, protecting drivers from having to shell out hundreds of pounds on costly repairs. Investment and reform are my watchwords as we work to improve everyday journeys, but throughout all this we cannot be blind to the impact of transport on our climate. The truth is that most transport emissions come from our roads, which is why reducing costs for drivers while cutting emissions will be at the heart of the EV transition. The trends are already clear. EVs are often cheaper to run and maintain than more polluting cars, and consumers have noticed that, with EV sales accounting for a quarter of new car purchases in October. However, this Budget enables us to go further. By committing an extra £1.3 billion to the electric car grant, we will keep saving buyers thousands of pounds on dozens of EV models. We will increase the expensive car supplement threshold for EVs to £50,000, and invest a further £200 million in the roll-out of EV charging infrastructure. My ambition is to make it as easy to charge up as it is to fill up, so I am pleased that the Budget confirmed a decade of 100% business rates relief for eligible EV charge points, and a review of the cost of public charging, including the impact of energy prices. Fairness remains at the heart of this Budget, and as the Chancellor rightly said, “everyone must contribute”, so electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles will start paying a new electric vehicle excise duty from April 2028. Above all, that ensures that all those who use our roads and all those who depend on our roads help to maintain our roads. For years, the British people were resigned to poorer living standards, stagnant wages and public services that were not fit for purpose. This Government promised change, and despite the state of the economy when we entered office, we are delivering that change and doing so fairly. We promised no return to the long winters of austerity, and we meant it. An extra £120 billion in public capital investment over this Parliament will build new infrastructure and homes across the country. It will strengthen our energy security, and it will give the NHS its biggest ever capital settlement. For transport, it is a downpayment for better, more reliable journeys—trains people can rely on, buses that turn up on Sundays, roads that make driving easier and infrastructure that connects not just people with places, but the aspirations of the next generation to the opportunities of tomorrow. That is what this Budget is about: fair choices for a fairer Britain, where the cost of living falls, real wages rise, and our towns and cities get the connectivity they deserve. This is a Budget that delivers on the public’s priorities, and I am proud to support it. Ordered, That the debate be now adjourned. —(Deirdre Costigan.) Debate to be resumed tomorrow .

• 20 Nov 2025 · Transport System: Economic Growth · Hansard source

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  The hon. Gentleman tempts me to divulge conversations that I have had in advance of the Budget. I am sorry to disappoint him, but I am not going to do that. I am acutely aware of the importance that the travelling public place on affordability, and of course I want to find a way to help those who rely on our railways, given the cost of living pressures that people are experiencing. I have spoken before, though, about the scale of the public subsidy that we are currently putting into the railways, and we have to get the right balance between supporting rail users and being fair to the taxpayer.

• 20 Nov 2025 · Transport System: Economic Growth · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend never misses an opportunity to talk with me about the importance of improving the transport system for his constituents. Through the local transport grant, Cornwall council will receive more than £25 million, which local leaders can use to support schemes in line with local priorities. We will issue guidance later this year so that local authorities can decide how to use their multi-year allocations, and I encourage my hon. Friend to take up this cause with his local council.

• 20 Nov 2025 · Transport System: Economic Growth · Hansard source

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  The right hon. Gentleman really does need to get with the programme. We have seen the best month ever when it comes to sales of EVs and hybrid vehicles. He talks about Ford. In fact, since launching our electric car grant in the summer, over 30,000 drivers have been helped to purchase an EV, including the Ford Puma and the Ford E-Tourneo Courier. There is a discount of £3,750 for individuals buying those models.

• 20 Nov 2025 · Transport System: Economic Growth · Hansard source

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  I can tell the right hon. Gentleman what this Government are doing to support economic growth when it comes to the transport system. We have given the green light to over 50 road and rail projects in the spending review, given planning permission to airport expansion at Luton and Gatwick, and invited proposals for a third runway at Heathrow, in stark contrast to the dither-and-delay approach of the previous Government when it came to the aviation sector. I am not going to take any lectures from him when it comes to economic growth and improving the transport system in this country.

• 20 Nov 2025 · Transport System: Economic Growth · Hansard source

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  I sympathise with my hon. Friend. Some parts of the country have been held back by poor transport links from years of Tory underfunding. I am pleased, though, that with this Labour Government, Staffordshire has been allocated more than £39 million this year in highways maintenance funding, plus £92 million in local transport grant from 2026 onwards. It is now up to the local authority to use that funding to deliver for its residents, and I know he will continue to press it to do so.

• 20 Nov 2025 · Transport System: Economic Growth · Hansard source

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  I recently visited Norwich, where business leaders and representatives made the case to me for improvement works at the Ely and Haughley junctions. I am aware of the importance of freight on those lines, given the adjacency to the port of Felixstowe. We have had to take some difficult decisions in this spending review about the rail enhancement programme. While we understand the benefits of this scheme, it has not been possible to fund it in this spending review period. However, it is part of the future pipeline of work that we will be looking at.