Wessex Route Study (Passenger Capacity)

Debate between John Hayes and Lilian Greenwood

Tuesday 2nd December 2014 Westminster Hall

[Mr Hayes]

I will write to my hon. Friend about the detail, but my view about all these things is that there should be a dialogue between the Government and the operating companies, because there we need lines of accountability for all public services to Government and, through the Government, to this House. When hon. Members raise such issues, it is important that there are means by which they can be communicated to the people who make the decisions. It is right that we have that dialogue, and I assure my hon. Friend that that will take place.

We understand the issues about housing and why my right hon. Friend the Member for Basingstoke introduced this debate, and we understand the implications of her argument. Responses to the consultation will, as I said, feed into the final version of the Wessex route study, which is due to be published next year. That will then help to inform the Government’s priorities for the next rail investment strategy for the period 2019 to 2024.

Finally, as I reach my exciting peroration, may I explain that as well as looking at potential funding priorities for control period 6, the Wessex route study is looking at much longer-term funding priorities for this route? I spoke about vision and dreams. We should be ambitious for this route and, in looking ahead to 2043, we need to think about long-term changes to supply and demand and about rail travellers’ changing expectations, including considering increasing capacity—extra tracks—on key sections closer to London or, indeed, Crossrail 2. Again, on those matters of longer-term funding, all hon. Members and all interested parties are encouraged to respond to Network Rail’s consultation before 17 February next year.

My right hon. Friend has done the House a great service in bringing these matters before it. The Government are wholly committed to the railways and to rail investment. We published our investment strategy for roads yesterday. That, and our approach to rail, is indicative of a breadth of thinking and a long-term approach in respect of a transport strategy that is, I think it is fair to say, unprecedented in its ambition. It is right that we should think in those terms, because infrastructure and investment only serve economic purpose—they feed the common good—by adding to individual and communal well-being. To that end, my right hon. Friend made an important contribution—

[Lilian Greenwood]

Will the Minister give way?

[Mr Hayes]

As I am on well-being, I am delighted to give way.

[Lilian Greenwood]

I am interested in the Minister’s comments about the need for long-term vision and certainty. There has been a remarkable lack of long-term vision on the issue of fares. When his Government were elected, they were talking about raising fares by the RPI plus 3%, and we had announcements taking it down to RPI plus 1%, then to RPI. I am sure that is incredibly welcome for the hard-pressed commuter, but it does not give any certainty either to operators or to passengers. His scrapping “flex” for 2015 is welcome, but why is not there a long-term commitment to scrap “flex” altogether, to take the pressure off people who have had 20% fare rises in just four years?

[Mr Hayes]

Again, Chesterton said that how you behave when you lose determines how long it will be before you win. The hon. Lady’s thinking about fares may herald her party’s eventually winning: it will not be for many decades, but it will happen. It is absolutely right that she presses me on this issue and, because I am the Rail Minister for today, I make this commitment: fares will not go up by more than inflation. I will also commit to something else, which will cause some excitement in her constituency, which I know well, and feel that I owe it this obligation. We are committed to electrifying the midland main line between London and Sheffield via Nottingham. She knows the difference that will make, as someone who, like me, travels regularly on that line.

What a great debate this has been. It has provided an opportunity for hon. and right hon. Members to advance the interests of their constituents in the context of that bigger vision of the significance of rail. This debate has shown that the party divides in this place are small compared with our shared commitment to do our best by the people we represent.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between John Hayes and Lilian Greenwood

Monday 16th April 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hayes]

I agree with the hon. Gentleman: it is right that we have work experience as one of the tools at our disposal, and I congratulate Stockton North, where the number of apprenticeships has risen by 76%. I know he will be very proud of that; however, he has been beaten by the right hon. Member for Lewisham, Deptford (Dame Joan Ruddock). As I think she said, in Deptford apprenticeship numbers are up 106%. What a record! What progress! What a Minister!

[Lilian Greenwood]

In my constituency, Nottingham city council has developed the employer hub, to ensure that public investment leads to job and training opportunities for local people, especially the young unemployed. Should not the Minister and the Education Secretary learn from Nottingham city council and put the full weight of their Department behind calls for apprenticeship guarantees in government procurement as a way of helping to reduce those not in employment, education or training?

[Mr Hayes]

The hon. Lady will know that I know Nottingham very well, having been a county councillor there for 13 years, and I am well aware of the economic profile of that city. I am also sure she will be aware that, together with the Minister for cities, my right hon. Friend the Member for Tunbridge Wells (Greg Clark), I launched a new initiative in Nottingham—city apprenticeship hubs, which combine the work of local authorities with the work of the private sector and the work of government to boost apprenticeships in just the way she describes.