Heidi Alexander MP: speeches

Speeches

• 8 Jul 2025 · Road and Rail Projects · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is clearly at the heart of all the action today. Having accepted an invitation to visit Redditch, how can I refuse a visit to Lichfield? I would be happy to talk to him more about the challenges of and opportunities for midlands transport when I visit.

• 8 Jul 2025 · Road and Rail Projects · Hansard source

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  Sometimes I wonder what alternative reality the hon. Gentleman is living in. Network North may have promised everything to everyone, but not a penny of it was funded, and promising local areas schemes that the Conservatives knew would never materialise was no way to run a Government and no way to run a country. This Government are now providing certainty to those areas, giving the green light to important road and rail schemes and being honest about what we cannot afford. I do not know whether the hon. Gentleman caught what was said by the former Rail Minister Huw Merriman to the Transport Committee last week, but he had this to say about the record of the last Government: “A lot of promises were made to MPs and others as to the ambition, but it did not match the amount that was actually being set down. By the time I came into post I ended up with a list that was much longer than could be funded.” I rest my case. The hon. Gentleman talked of nothing being new. Let me give him some examples of new projects that we are announcing today. We are upgrading the Tyne and Wear metro, replacing a signalling system that dates back to the 1970s and enabling the extension of the metro to Washington. We are providing new railway stations: Wellington and Cullompton in Devon, Portishead and Pill with connections to Bristol, and Haxby in North Yorkshire, which will connect tens of thousands of people to the rail network. Can the hon. Gentleman tell me which Conservative Transport Secretary committed funds to those schemes? He cannot, because none of them did. Let me also give one of the new roads as an example: the Middlewich bypass in Cheshire. The previous Government rejected the business case for that scheme, but this Government are funding it. New infrastructure, new railway stations and new roads connecting every part of our country—that is the difference that a Labour Government make.

• 8 Jul 2025 · Road and Rail Projects · Hansard source

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  I am grateful to my hon. Friend for her question. We will set out the timetable for the delivery of these schemes as we produce the next road investment strategy—RIS3—which we will have done by the end of March next year.

• 8 Jul 2025 · Road and Rail Projects · Hansard source

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  I would expect all road schemes that we are announcing today to contribute to our public transport objectives and improve the walking and cycling environment. As I said in my statement, roads are used by everyone and for many different modes of transport. On my hon. Friend’s point about biodiversity net gain, I am assured that all schemes have gone through a very thorough environmental assessment. I will write to him on the other issue he raises.

• 8 Jul 2025 · Road and Rail Projects · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend makes a fair point: stations need to be welcoming and attractive places. I am pleased that the accessibility improvements are happening at Luton station, and I would be very happy to meet her, as she requests.

• 8 Jul 2025 · Road and Rail Projects · Hansard source

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  As I have said, there is a number of very worthy rail schemes which, although funding may not have been allocated during this spending review period, are important to the travelling public. My hon. Friend makes a strong case for the scheme that will benefit his constituents, and I can assure him that when we have any updates on future funding availability I will come back and update the House.

• 8 Jul 2025 · Road and Rail Projects · Hansard source

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  I feel that I am making progress, because the last time the right hon. Gentleman asked me a question, I believe he suggested that I name a train after Margaret Thatcher. I politely declined. He will get everywhere with flattery. Of course, the digital signalling on the east coast main line will have a positive impact on services, but I am afraid I cannot make a commitment on the particular service that he wants at this time.

• 8 Jul 2025 · Road and Rail Projects · Hansard source

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  I entirely agree with my hon. Friend, which is why, for the first time in years, this Government will be producing a new road safety strategy. I look forward to talking more with her and other colleagues about its contents.

• 8 Jul 2025 · Road and Rail Projects · Hansard source

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  We will set out more detail on the midlands rail hub in due course. I simply observe that when the right hon. Lady was a Rail Minister, she was unfortunately unable to deliver the station for which she now advocates.

• 8 Jul 2025 · Road and Rail Projects · Hansard source

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  I had a meeting with my right hon. Friend the Member for Ilford North (Wes Streeting) recently, who made a similar case about Broadmead Road bridge. In the spending review, we secured funding to set up a structures fund to ensure that the Government can make money available to local authorities with failing assets where the cost of the asset is so great that it would be prohibitive for the local authority to address it on its own. We will be issuing a call for evidence to ask for feedback on how best to structure that fund, and I hope to be able to say more about its design before the end of the year.

• 8 Jul 2025 · Road and Rail Projects · Hansard source

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  One of the first things I did when I came into this post was to agree with the Treasury that we would explore private finance options for the lower Thames crossing. We are working at the moment on securing a suitable private sector partner to finance the scheme. However, I think the right hon. Member has a bit of a brass neck, if I am honest. His Government sat on a planning application for years and years. This Government, within a year of coming into office, had granted planning consent and had decided to take forward the scheme with private finance, because we know how critical that crossing will be for people living in Kent and Essex, and also for the freight and logistics companies that will use it.

• 8 Jul 2025 · Road and Rail Projects · Hansard source

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  I can assure the hon. Gentleman that the environmental impacts of all road schemes are considered carefully before business cases are approved and planning approval is given. In fact, in many cases, schemes tackling congestion hotspots will deliver environmental benefits—in particular, air quality and noise benefits. I am not concerned about the possibility of what the hon. Gentleman suggests, but I am grateful to him for highlighting that case in Northern Ireland.

• 8 Jul 2025 · Road and Rail Projects · Hansard source

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  We are seeing a step change in the amount of funding that this Government are putting into the Welsh rail network. The £445 million will fund development projects as well as the delivery of some new infrastructure, and that is in south Wales and also in north Wales. I would be happy to speak further to the hon. Member about the scheme in her constituency that she has mentioned.

• 8 Jul 2025 · Road and Rail Projects · Hansard source

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  I shall write to my hon. Friend about the detail of the midlands north-west rail link. As we establish Great British Railways, we will be placing a duty on the new organisation, which will be the publicly owned organisation to bring together the management of track and train, to increase the amount of freight that we transport on the railways. We do need to get lorries off the road and move more goods on the rail network. It is a strategic objective for me and my Department to make sure that we are maximising the amount of freight that we can transport on the rail network, while also delivering excellent passenger services.

• 8 Jul 2025 · Road and Rail Projects · Hansard source

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  In the past couple of weeks, we announced Project Reach, which will improve mobile connectivity in a number of tunnels and sidings, and some of those improvements will take place over the Great Western Railway network. On the works at Old Oak Common, the Rail Minister is very alive to the question of how we minimise disruption for users of the GWR service, both in the construction phase and once HS2 is in operation, and is looking in detail at that. Of course, when it is finally open, the station will offer a valuable interchange for GWR customers, who will be able to go to Birmingham without going into central London.

• 8 Jul 2025 · Road and Rail Projects · Hansard source

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  The simple truth is that we inherited a series of commitments that could not be afforded, so we had to take the difficult decision not to progress some projects. National Highways will now work to bring those projects to a close. I will say that on the A12, if there are individual, small-scale interventions that could unlock or address particular problems, we would be happy to look at those.

• 8 Jul 2025 · Road and Rail Projects · Hansard source

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  As I said in response to the hon. Member for Torbay (Steve Darling), we have already heavily invested in securing the cliffs and making the coastline more resilient in Dawlish. We are keeping that final phase of work under review, and it will be possible to determine the next course of action only once that further cliff monitoring and drainage works have taken place. None the less, I can assure him that we will keep it within the pipeline of schemes that we are considering for future investment.

• 8 Jul 2025 · Road and Rail Projects · Hansard source

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  We have had to prioritise our funding on the schemes that will make the greatest difference for passengers and economic growth as soon as possible. Having already invested in securing the cliffs and making the coastline more resilient in the south-west, the final phase of work will be kept under review as part of our pipeline of future funding. This will be determined by the output of the cliff monitoring and drainage works that we are continuing to fund.

• 8 Jul 2025 · Road and Rail Projects · Hansard source

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  We will publish an integrated national transport strategy later this year to address precisely the sort of issues that the hon. Member raises about the criticality of bus links to stations in the absence of a new station. My predecessor and the Chancellor took the decision to cancel the restoring your railway programme because it was unaffordable in its entirety, but where schemes offer good value for money and really transformative benefits for the local economy—such as the Wellington and Cullompton schemes, and the Portishead scheme that we have announced today—I hope that we have shown that we are prepared to look at them and take them forward.

• 8 Jul 2025 · Road and Rail Projects · Hansard source

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  I am pleased to hear that my hon. Friend welcomes the record investment in city regions that the Chancellor announced shortly before the spending review. It is worth nearly £16 billion across the country, and the extension of the tram network in Greater Manchester is a key part of that funding. I am aware of the campaign for a full service to Reddish South, and I encourage my hon. Friend to keep working with the Mayor of Greater Manchester and Transport for Greater Manchester to build the case for it.

• 8 Jul 2025 · Road and Rail Projects · Hansard source

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  I am very aware of the case that my hon. Friend and the leader of Bradford council have put forward for a new station. As he notes, we will be setting out our plans for Northern Powerhouse Rail in the coming weeks.

• 8 Jul 2025 · Road and Rail Projects · Hansard source

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  With permission, Madam Deputy Speaker, I would like to make a statement on how we are reconnecting Britain. Today, I am announcing one of the most transformative investments in our transport network for a generation. We are greenlighting over 50 rail and road projects, touching every corner of the country, from more rail capacity in Oxford and better roads in Newcastle to new stations in Devon. This is what delivering on our plan for change looks like. We said we would raise living standards, so today’s announcement is about taking the brakes off growth, supporting 42,000 new jobs and slashing journey times. We said we would build 1.5 million new homes, so we are directly supporting the construction of 39,000 new properties, showing how transport can lift up communities and improve lives. We said that we would accelerate to net zero, so not only will we make our roads safer and less congested and continue the transition to electric vehicles in a sensible way; we will get more people on public transport, backing our railways with new links and more electrified track. More jobs, new housing and better journeys are the people’s priorities, and they are my priorities too. None of this was inevitable. We are here because this Government are restoring stability to our finances and honesty to our politics. Thanks to the 10-year infrastructure strategy, we are committing at least £725 billion for infrastructure over the next decade, restoring confidence, driving growth and transforming how projects are delivered. Through phase 2 of the spending review, £92 billion will be spent on getting Britain moving. We have already confirmed where some of that money is going, including billions of pounds for upgrades on the trans-Pennine route, which is the backbone of our northern cities; a commitment to build the East West railway line to Cambridge; the biggest ever investment in local transport across the midlands and the north; and over £2 billion to enable Transport for London to continue with the purchase of new Piccadilly, Bakerloo and Docklands Light Railway trains. As the Chancellor said last month, we will also be confirming plans for Northern Powerhouse Rail soon. Today, though, I can provide more detail on how we will use our wider spending review settlement. Let me start with our main highways. It should come as no surprise when I say that the strategic road network is one of our most important national assets. Carrying one third of all traffic and two thirds of our freight and generating £400 billion for our economy, those essential arteries sustain our businesses, our trade, and our very way of life. However, with much of the network built in the ’70s and ’80s, not only are many routes in need of renewal; there are pinch points where nothing short of new infrastructure will do. As such, after careful consideration, I can announce that we will fund five more strategic road enhancement projects. That starts with linking up the M54 and the M6 and expanding capacity on the A38, which means better links for thousands of workers in the midlands and supports over 15,000 new homes across Derby. We will also start work on a continuous dual carriageway on the A66 across the Pennines, which will strengthen road safety, cut journey times by 12 minutes and get more people to the region’s stunning national parks. We have set aside funding for the A46 Newark bypass scheme and the Simister Island interchange in Greater Manchester, with both schemes now awaiting the outcome of the live planning process. Some 97% of trips directly depend on our road network. Whether it is cycling, buses, walking or cars—you name it, our roads carry it. That is why we are investing record funding, with enough to fill an extra 7 million potholes this year, and why we extended the temporary cut in fuel duty at the last Budget. This Government will always be on the side of the British people, who depend on our roads day in, day out. Today we are going even further. I have approved full business cases on the Middlewich eastern bypass and the A382 from Drumbridges to Newton Abbot, meaning that they can now enter construction. I can also announce that we have secured funding to continue to take forward 28 schemes, from Somerset to Skipton and from Newcastle to North Hykeham. I have spoken about the dozens of schemes that will transform road journeys across the country. The decisions we have made prioritise those essential trips to work, to the shops and to see loved ones, and keep our vital freight sector moving. Let me turn to the projects that will deliver more reliable journeys for passengers on our railways. We know that rail investment outside London is well overdue. The spending review ramped up funding for the trans-Pennine route upgrade, for new stations and capacity improvements in Wales and for East West Rail. The new midlands rail hub will see the region’s most ambitious rail improvement scheme to date. Thanks to Government funding, huge numbers of additional trains and 20 million extra seats could be added to services in and out of Birmingham each year. But it is not just about delivering big-ticket projects. I can today announce new rail stations at Wellington and Cullompton in the south-west, which will bring significant benefits to local communities. Following representations from Mayor David Skaith and my hon. Friend the Member for York Outer (Mr Charters), I have also decided to fund the reopening of Haxby station on the York to Scarborough line. We will replace the aged signalling system on the Tyne and Wear metro, securing the benefits of that service for the next generation. I have listened carefully to Mayor Helen Godwin and my hon. Friend the Member for North Somerset (Sadik Al-Hassan) about the need to reopen the Portishead line, and today I can confirm that we will do just that, connecting 50,000 additional people to the rail network. Make no mistake: these and other projects will not just improve the passenger experience; they are down payments on future economic growth, better connectivity, and the new jobs and homes that this Government have promised. I know that some hon. Members will have specific schemes in their constituencies that are at the early stages or have not been funded in this spending review period, or that were cancelled but not announced as such by the previous Government. Let me reassure colleagues that many are worthy projects, and we will keep them under review. The soon-to-be-published infrastructure pipeline will set out our longer-term outlook and give colleagues the transparency that for years they have sorely lacked. It is important to set the context. We know that critical infrastructure projects were promised. We know that expectations were raised. Sadly, we know that there was no plan to pay for them. Indeed, schemes that formed part of the previous Government’s major road network programme, all of which were meant to be in construction by now, have not progressed as expected. Almost half are yet to reach the outline business case stage, despite being in the programme for six years. Years of dither and delay wasted everyone’s time and left communities in limbo. That, I must say, is the tragic legacy of the farcical Network North announcement made by the previous Prime Minister. It therefore falls to this Government to make the difficult but necessary choices about future transport projects. We have to level with the British public, provide much-needed certainty and govern with integrity. Only those projects that are fully costed, affordable and deliver a return on taxpayers’ money will be given the green light under my watch. That means no more black holes, no more busted budgets, and no more promising the moon on a stick—those days are over. I have therefore taken the difficult decision on the strategic road network not to progress the A12 widening scheme. That and dualling the A66 were two of the most expensive strategic schemes on the table, and it was impossible to continue with both. We have also decided not to progress the A47 Wansford to Sutton scheme. We are already investing more than £500 million on improvements to the A47 corridor, with work to dual sections in Norfolk already under way, but it is just not feasible to support further investment at this time. I understand that some communities will feel frustrated, but by taking this decision we are rebalancing funds towards those areas that for too long have not had the infrastructure investment they deserve. The north and midlands will now get a higher proportion of strategic road spend than we have seen in the past five years. I believe that is the right and fair thing to do. Finally, the previous Government spent many years and a lot of money developing plans for large local schemes and major road network projects that were never going to be affordable and therefore never got off the ground. We cannot go on like that. Although I have today written to colleagues and councils about 28 schemes that we will fund, many others now need to be reviewed. My officials will work with councils on which schemes to prioritise, and I will update the House on next steps once those discussions have taken place. We are making a once-in-a-generation commitment to get Britain moving. Better roads and new rail links will raise living standards, increase opportunity and deliver on our plan for change. Throughout, we will always put the British people first. That means being honest about the inevitable trade-offs, understanding that financial stability remains the bedrock of economic growth, and ensuring that we always deliver the best value for taxpayers’ money. I truly believe that talent exists across this country, yet poor connectivity is a drag on opportunity and places a ceiling on people’s aspiration. That changes now. We will reconnect Britain, and we will deliver the world-class transport infrastructure that this country needs. That is my mission. I commend this statement to the House.

• 8 Jul 2025 · Road and Rail Projects · Hansard source

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  I would be very happy to ask my hon. Friend the Minister for the Future of Roads to take that meeting as I suspect that she will be closer to some of the detail of the work that National Highways is doing.

• 8 Jul 2025 · Road and Rail Projects · Hansard source

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  As I said in response to a previous question, we will set out the delivery timetable for all the schemes that we are announcing today when we produce the next roads investment strategy. We will produce a draft of that later this year, and the final version will be published by March.

• 8 Jul 2025 · Road and Rail Projects · Hansard source

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  Let me assure my hon. Friend that I am in frequent discussions with the Mayor for the Liverpool city region, Steve Rotheram, as well as the Mayor for Greater Manchester. I am aware of the proposed Liverpool Gateway station in my hon. Friend’s constituency, and I hope to be able to say more on Northern Powerhouse Rail in the coming weeks.