Lilian Greenwood MP: speeches

Speeches

• 10 Jun 2025 · Mass Transit: West Yorkshire · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Jardine. I begin by congratulating my hon. Friend the Member for Leeds South West and Morley (Mark Sewards) on securing this timely debate and on his passionate words in support of his city and region. I welcome the opportunity to speak about the Government’s support for West Yorkshire’s ambitions and why we are committed to working hand in hand with local leaders to deliver transformational change. West Yorkshire is a region with enormous potential. Home to 2.4 million people and a £67 billion economy, it contains some of the fastest growing towns and cities in the country. However, it also faces significant socioeconomic challenges. Productivity has lagged behind the national average for 15 years. Too many people still live in areas of persistent deprivation, and poor connectivity is holding back housing, regeneration and access to opportunities. Around one in five people in West Yorkshire live in the 10% most deprived neighbourhoods nationally. Improving transport connectivity is key to unlocking growth across West Yorkshire. Better links between Leeds and Bradford—just 9 miles apart—will help to reduce reliance on car travel, which currently accounts for 74% of journeys.

• 22 Apr 2025 · Road Safety and Active Travel to School · Hansard source

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  I am delighted to recognise that fantastic work. Giving children the opportunity to walk, wheel or cycle to school is fundamental to their development and, as many people have said, builds good habits from an early age. When a quarter of children leaving primary school are overweight and 40% of primary school children are being driven to school, now is the time to provide healthier alternatives. A number of hon. Members talked about school streets. Active Travel England recently published guidance that will assist local authorities in planning, developing and implementing school streets. As a direct result of its funding, 180 school streets have been developed, and of course there are many more. They are a great opportunity, and the benefits speak for themselves: cleaner air, fewer cars, less congestion, improved physical and mental health, and of course safer roads. I would love to mention the school streets trial in Hackney, which has provided fantastic evidence; my hon. Friend the Member for Brentford and Isleworth (Ruth Cadbury), the Chair of the Select Committee, talked about the evidence from Hounslow, and we also heard about Ealing. Alongside school streets, Active Travel England is funding a wide range of support to enable more children to walk, wheel and cycle to school, including Bikeability cycle training, which I am keen to see, the Living Streets Walk to School outreach programme and Modeshift support for travel planning. I am conscious that I have run out of time. We have announced a further £300 million for active travel and we will set out plans for future years following the spending review. I had better sit down now, but I am sure there will be many more opportunities to discuss these vital issues in the days ahead. Question put and agreed to . Resolved , That this House has considered road safety and supporting active travel to school.

• 7 Apr 2025 · Road Maintenance · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend makes an important point, and people can see for themselves which party is on the side of motorists and road users. We have provided an extra £500 million in the current financial year, on top of the previous Government’s funding baseline and the Network North money for 2024-25. It is a huge increase. For most authorities, it means around 36% or 37% more than last year, and of course it is just the start. As many hon. Members have observed today, a one-off uplift will not fix all the problems—it was never going to. However, through the spending review, we are determined to secure a long-term funding settlement to allow local highway authorities to plan ahead with confidence. Strangely, the only time the previous Government promised long-term funding was nine months before the general election, knowing full well that they had not put any cash aside to pay for it. We are determined to ensure that the extra funding we are providing genuinely leads to extra spending by local authorities, rather than simply allowing them to put less of their own funding into highway maintenance. That is exactly why we are introducing the extra reporting requirements that the Secretary of State set out. The information that councils publish in June will shine a spotlight on this issue in a way that has not happened before. It will allow local people to see for themselves what repairs and resurfacing their council is planning, and how this compares with other local authorities. It will help the Department and the public to understand matters such as which authorities are putting their own funding into the pot, and which are doing the most to prepare their networks for the wetter winters that we are already seeing.

• 30 Oct 2024 · Roadworks: Journey Times · Hansard source

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  The appropriate thing for me to do is to listen to the right hon. Member’s speech next week and to the arguments that he makes. I am sure that we will find an opportunity to discuss it in the future. I assure the hon. Member for Wimbledon (Mr Kohler) that National Highways always works closely with Network Rail to ensure that works on our national networks are co-ordinated. If that does not happen, I hope that he would draw it to my attention, and I would certainly seek to raise those issues with them. There is already a great deal of scope for works to be planned, managed and co-ordinated more effectively—as the hon. Member for Broxbourne called for—and, importantly, for the public to be told when works are happening and to be warned about the impact that those might have on their journeys. The responsibility of the local highways authority is to co-ordinate any works taking place on their roads, including their own works. In doing so, councils must take account of the needs of everyone using the road, consider the implications of works for their network and that of neighbouring authorities, and act to minimise or prevent problems. Utility companies also have a duty to co-operate with the authority. Street works permit schemes are now in use by all but one local authority. They provide councils with the proactive tools to improve the management of all works in the street, as well as offering incentives to minimise disruption. To support the transition to permits, the Department for Transport set up Street Manager, which is our online service for planning and managing road and street works in England. Since 2020, all local authorities, utility companies and their contractors, have had a single view of the street, with visibility of the whole network to help them plan and co-ordinate works for the benefit of road users. It enables better forward planning and more joint works. We also stream open data about live and planned works that apps and websites make available to the public. We have a commitment to continue improving the service to ensure that it meets users’ needs. As the hon. Member for Broxbourne highlighted, lane rental is another tool to help local highways authorities to reduce the impact of works taking place on the busiest roads at the busiest times. Such schemes allow authorities to charge utilities up to £2,500 a day for works on those roads. The hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) expressed the hope that roadworks would be planned for periods when they cause least disruption. Such issues are devolved in Northern Ireland, but his point is well made. Lane rental charges act as an incentive to encourage those who plan works to complete them as quickly as possible, to carry out their works outside peak periods, or to consider alternative locations to minimise disruption. Lane rental schemes also encourage joint works, as that can attract discounts or charges can be waived. Any surplus revenue can be spent by the council on ways to reduce the impact of works on congestion. Highways authorities that want to set up schemes can bid to the Secretary of State for approval, and we have provided bidding guidance on how they can do that. As the hon. Member for Broxbourne said, four lane rental schemes are in operation: on Transport for London’s network in London, and in Kent, Surrey and West Sussex. The Secretary of State has recently approved a scheme in East Sussex, which is due to begin in 2025. Many more local councils are developing schemes and this Government want to support them. We want to make the lane rental scheme application process as easy as possible for local authorities, and I am reviewing the application and approval process with my Department to see what improvements can be made. On the issue of fines and penalties, local authorities can already issue overrun charges of up to £10,000 per day for works that exceed the duration agreed as part of the permit. For a range of offences such as breaching permit conditions or working without a permit, fixed penalty notices can also be issued. As my hon. Friend the Member for Rossendale and Darwen (Andy MacNae) said, these powers can and should be used to improve the daily lives of our constituents, who rely on the roads. As I grew up in his constituency, many of those roads are very familiar to me. As has been said several times, the Department for Transport consulted earlier this year on proposals to apply overrun charges at weekends and to increase fixed penalty notice charges. I am fully aware that the Department’s response to that consultation is eagerly awaited. I am considering the proposals, and we will publish our response shortly. As I said, I look forward to listening closely to the comments from the right hon. Member for Rayleigh and Wickford (Mr Francois) about his forthcoming ten-minute rule Bill. In addition to the existing range of powers available for use by authorities to manage roads on their network, I hope and expect that we will all see improvements in how utility companies carry out their works as more authorities operate lane rental schemes. My Department is determined to put people at the heart of everything that we do, so as we continue our work, we will constantly look at how we regulate roadworks to see if further improvements can be made for the benefit of everyone who uses our roads—drivers, bikers, cyclists, pedestrians, and so on. We plan, for example, to look at how urgent or emergency works, which I recognise cause particular difficulties, can be planned and co-ordinated more effectively, especially when they affect traffic and cause disruption, including for buses. My hon. Friend the Member for Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme (Lee Pitcher) set out clearly how roadworks can affect the punctuality of the bus services that our constituents rely on. My constituents in Nottingham will very much recognise that, as we have some major roadworks in our city centre. While I am on the subject of buses, which are important road users, I gently point out to the Opposition spokesman, the hon. Member for Mid Buckinghamshire (Greg Smith), that the previous Government funded their bus fare cap only until the end of the year. We are extending the cap and investing in better bus services across England. I am also surprised that he did not mention the fuel duty freeze, but there we go. I thank the hon. Member for Broxbourne for raising these important issues, which affect the daily lives of our constituents and all of us. I am determined to keep people moving and to deliver the cleaner, greener, smoother and less congested roads that all our constituents want to travel on.

• 16 Oct 2024 · Driving Test Availability · Hansard source

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  No debate would be complete without an intervention from the hon. Member. I have not yet had the opportunity to meet his colleague to discuss this issue, but I would be very willing to do so. That reminds me that I wanted to respond to the question from my hon. Friend the Member for Reading Central. The DVSA is aware that the landlord of the current driving test centre in Reading has been granted planning permission to redevelop the site, which he referred to. The DVSA has identified a new location. It is in the early stages of negotiations, but it will confirm the new location as soon as it is able. I can assure my hon. Friend that I will continue to raise this point in my regular meetings with the chief executive of the DVSA. In conclusion, the Department for Transport and the DVSA recognise the impact that long driving test waiting times are having on learner drivers and driving instructors. It is our priority to reduce driving test waiting times while upholding road safety standards. We want everyone to enjoy a lifetime of safe, sustainable driving. Finally, I wish Molly, the constituent of my hon. Friend the Member for Bracknell, very best wishes when she gets the opportunity to take her test. I am sure we all hope that she passes the second time.

• 16 Oct 2024 · Essex Highways Funding · Hansard source

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  My point was to set out the context within which I will comment on some of the specifics that the right hon. Lady asks about. Looking across the Department at the commitments the previous Government made on roads and rail, there were undoubtedly over-commitments. Promises were given that could not be fulfilled. That is why we are having to look again, and it is why on 30 July the Secretary of State for Transport said that she was commissioning a review of the Department’s capital spend portfolio. That review, which will look across the totality of our capital schemes on rail and road, will support the development of our new long-term strategy for transport: developing a modern and integrated network with people at its heart, ensuring that transport infrastructure can be delivered efficiently and on time. Measured by length, local roads form the majority of our country’s road network. This Government take the condition of local roads very seriously and are committed to maintaining and renewing the local road network. The Department allocates funding, which is not ringfenced, to local highways authorities so that they can prioritise spend based on their local knowledge and circumstances. The Department for Transport will provide Essex county council with £34.5 million during the 2024-25 financial year to enable it to carry out its maintenance responsibilities for local roads in the area. I would love to be able to give the right hon. Lady a commitment, but funding for future years is a matter for the spending review, as she knows. However, I understand the importance of ensuring that local roads are well maintained. In addition, we will provide local authorities with funding to help them to fix up to 1 million additional potholes across England in each year of this Parliament; we have made that commitment. My officials are in regular contact with the council to help it to develop and manage its schemes within the major road network and large local majors programme. The Department is currently assessing the full business case for the A127/A130 Fairglen interchange scheme and is reviewing the strategic outline case for the A127 corridor improvements, on which we have asked for further information to help with our assessment. We also stand ready to provide assistance, as and when needed, as the council develops a full business case for the Army and Navy sustainable transport package. Of course, all future decisions on the major road network schemes are subject to the current spending review and the Department’s capital review. The strategic road network of our motorways and main A roads encompasses the roads that are most important for people to get around the country. Within the east of England, the A12 is one of the busiest roads and provides the strategic road network with its main south-west/north-east road through Essex and Suffolk, connecting Ipswich and places in the right hon. Lady’s constituency to London and the M25. It provides a strategic connection for the ports of Harwich and Felixstowe and nearby Stansted airport, which is important for both passengers and freight, as she says. The section between the Boreham interchange in Chelmsford at junction 19 and the Marks Tey interchange at junction 25 carries high volumes of traffic, with up to 90,000 vehicles every day. Because of the important freight connections, especially to Felixstowe and Harwich, heavy goods vehicles make up between 9% and 12% of the traffic on this section—almost double the national figure of 5% on most routes. That section of the A12 is also an important commuter route, so I understand why the right hon. Lady is so passionate about the improvements that she seeks. The resulting congestion leads to delays and means that a driver’s average speed during the morning commute is particularly slow in both directions for a dual-carriageway A road of its kind. To tackle that, the A12 Chelmsford to A120 road improvement scheme was announced in the second road investment strategy published in March 2020. The scheme proposes to widen the A12 to three lanes between junction 19 north of Chelmsford and the junction 25 A120 interchange with the aim of improving safety, reducing congestion and providing safer alternative routes away from the A12 for cyclists, walkers and horse riders. I recognise the level of support for this scheme and its importance to the right hon. Lady’s constituents and those of her colleagues. The hon. Member for Chelmsford (Marie Goldman) rightly highlighted her own concerns. However, as I noted earlier, the financial inheritance that the Government have received is extremely challenging. The A12 Chelmsford to A120 scheme alongside other future road projects is being considered as part of the Department’s capital review, which will inform the upcoming spending review. As the right hon. Member for Witham knows, major investment decisions are a matter for the spending review, and at this stage I am not in a position to give assurances about individual schemes. I know that that is frustrating for her—it is somewhat frustrating for me—but I do understand the arguments that she puts forward. The A120 is also an important strategic route in the east of England. Commuters, freight, residents and businesses currently suffer daily lengthy delays on this single-carriageway road. Proposals for improving this stretch of road were initially developed by Essex county council, and a scheme to improve the A120 between Braintree and the A12 was identified in the second road investment strategy as part of a pipeline of schemes considered for possible delivery in the third road investment strategy. However, in March 2023, the then Secretary of State for Transport announced that, owing to financial headwinds, schemes originally earmarked as potential candidates for the third road investment strategy would be considered for inclusion in the fourth road investment strategy, which is beyond 2030. I know that that will not have been welcome news; nevertheless, those schemes remain in development for possible future funding. The right hon. Lady touched on issues around the lower Thames crossing, but as there is a live planning application, she will know that it would not be appropriate for me to comment. The deadline for the decision has been extended to allow time for the application to be considered further, including any decisions made as part of the upcoming spending review. Despite the difficult financial inheritance, I can assure the right hon. Member and her colleagues that my Department is committed to putting transport at the heart of mission-driven government. As she understands, growth is vital. Transport is a vital enabler, not just for growth but for our wider ambitions, including health, road safety and better links. I am determined that we will build transport infrastructure that drives economic growth, improves opportunities in every part of the country and delivers value for money for taxpayers. I am sure that I have the right hon. Member’s support in that ambition, which requires a fundamental reset in how we approach capital projects. We need public trust, industry confidence and Government integrity at the heart of it; we do not want to make promises that we cannot keep. I thank the right hon. Member again for securing this debate. As she recognises, transport is a vital enabler of jobs, housing and opportunities for growth. I am sure that we share the desire to see those things for Witham, for Essex and indeed for the whole country. Question put and agreed to .