Heidi Alexander MP: speeches 2025

Speeches

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

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  I agree that accessibility at railway stations is critical. Obviously, it is key for disabled members of our community, but it is also vital for young parents travelling with prams and buggies, or people going on holiday with heavy suitcases. My hon. Friend has been a real champion for a new lift at Exeter St Thomas station, and while it is not currently on the list of 50 feasibility schemes that we are doing, I am sure he will continue to make the case to me for its worth.

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

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  I am really pleased to be able to announce today the green light for the Middlewich bypass. I know that that new 2.5 km of single carriageway bypass to the east of Middlewich will make a big difference to my hon. Friend’s constituency, unlocking swifter, easier journeys and more routes to employment and opportunities for his constituents for which he so powerfully advocates.

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

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  My hon. Friend has spoken to me directly about this in the past couple of days. I know that the Rail Minister found that meeting very helpful. I appreciate that there is some strategic crossover with Defence and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, but I will be sure to stay in touch with my hon. Friend as the business case develops.

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

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  Although I have not personally had any direct engagement, it may be that the Rail Minister or my officials have, and so I would be happy to write back to the hon. Gentleman to update him on any collaboration that is taking place in this respect.

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

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  Our local roads have a key role to play in driving growth across the UK and across the area my hon. Friend represents. They will allow people to access new opportunities and a higher quality of life wherever they choose. I am pleased to confirm that the scheme in her constituency is one of 28 that the Government have secured funding for and will be going ahead.

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

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  If my hon. Friend writes to me with further details of the access issues at the rear of York station, I will be happy to speak to the Rail Minister and relevant organisations to see whether there are improvements that we can make. I appreciate that we need accessible stations if everyone is to benefit.

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

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  I cannot possibly compete with those railway puns, but I am delighted that my hon. Friend’s constituents have such a strong advocate for public transport and investment in the rail network. He is right to say that the midlands rail hub can have transformative impacts, and I thank him for all that he has done in championing the scheme over the months. He has been such a positive Member of this House.

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

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  The hon. Gentleman makes a compelling case. As I said, we prioritised the schemes that we have announced today on the basis of the ones that will deliver the greatest improvement to passengers most quickly. I know that there will be other schemes worthy of investment, but that is why we have not announced the particular service and scheme that he wants today.

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

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  I will need to write to the right hon. Gentleman about the Westbury scheme. I will make sure that I look into the details of it and I will come back to him.

• 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.