HS2: Revised Timetable and Budget

Debate between Huw Merriman and Clive Betts

Tuesday 14th March 2023 Commons Chamber

[Huw Merriman]

We have been giving plenty of funds to TfL in recent years. All I can say to the hon. Lady is that she will be very proud that her constituency has the best-connected and largest new railway station ever built in the UK. I have been there to see it, and I want to thank all those who are working on it: what is being done there is extraordinary. This station will regenerate the hon. Lady’s constituency, and I am amazed that she is not welcoming it.

[Mr Clive Betts (Sheffield South East) (Lab)]

At the same time as the cancellation of the HS2 route to Leeds, the route to Sheffield was cancelled, but we were told not to worry because plenty of other good things were going to happen. The electrification of the midland main line would be unpaused for the third time, and we would get the high-speed trains to Leeds, which we are now told we may know something about at some time in the future. All that has happened since then is the ending of the direct link between Sheffield and Manchester airport. May I return to the first of those promises, and ask the Minister to give a categorical commitment on when the midland main line electrification will be extended to Sheffield?

[Huw Merriman]

A statement was issued on Thursday. The urgent question relates to HS2, and I have given the commitments in respect of how that will be delivered. As I said earlier, the enhancements pipeline—the HS2 investments—will be forthcoming, and will be put before the House in the coming months. A vast number of projects are in that pipeline, and we will give careful consideration to which ones we will adopt.

Rail Cancellations and Service Levels

Debate between Huw Merriman and Clive Betts

Thursday 1st December 2022 Commons Chamber

[Huw Merriman]

I assure my hon. Friend that I do not just take the assurances that, “This is very difficult for us for all these third-party reasons.” We look at what every part of the system can deliver, including the management and those responsible for the contract. I have also heard other experiences, not least of Mr Speaker on his Avanti services, that show that things are absolutely not good enough for passengers.

We need to get Avanti to do better and we need to help it to do better as well. Where matters are within its control, I assure my hon. Friend that we will hold it to account through the Office of Rail and Road and the regular meetings that I have. Where matters are not within its control, we require it to do even more to mitigate them. I am keen that we see an improvement to the tone that is given out, the customer service and the updates.

[Mr Clive Betts (Sheffield South East) (Lab)]

The other day, I read with amazement an article in The Guardian which said, with regard to cancellations on the TransPennine Express, that between the middle of October and the middle of November, the reported figures were between 5% and 12% a week, but actual cancellations were over 20% each week. The difference is that train operators do not count as a cancellation a train that is cancelled before 10 pm the night before. When train operators are penalised under their contracts for non-performance, are the cancellation figures used those that the train operators report, or those that passengers experience?

[Huw Merriman]

I will write to the hon. Gentleman and specify how those figures are calculated. I will also give him up-to-date figures from the methodology that we calculate. I am confident that those figures recognise the same experience that passengers have suffered and he has described, but I will write to him and set that out in full.

Leasehold Reform

Debate between Huw Merriman and Clive Betts

Thursday 21st March 2019 Commons Chamber

[Mr Betts]

We need something simple, and the Law Commission has been asked to consider that issue because something as simple as a multiple of ground rent might not be fair. The freeholders who would get the biggest benefit from a multiple of ground rent will be those who made the largest ground rent charges, and it would be perverse if those who behaved the worst were to benefit in that way. We want the Law Commission’s report as quickly as possible and a formula that is as simple as possible but also fair.

[Huw Merriman (Bexhill and Battle) (Con)]

I, too, thank the Select Committee for its report, which is long overdue. My constituency has a particular issue with elderly constituents who have moved into blocks for independent living and found that their assets have depreciated hugely. They are not being managed or looked after, but the service charges keep going up, and people cannot afford to leave. They are trapped. Something needs to be done to help those vulnerable constituents, and it seems to me that we need to open up the market for management service companies. Did the Committee consider whether it would be possible to allow leaseholders to set up their own community interest company and take on those responsibilities? Leaseholders would not rip themselves off in the way that they are currently ripped off by some of these unscrupulous companies.

[Mr Betts]

There are circumstances where leaseholders can do that—ultimately, they could move to a form of commonhold, although that requires substantial agreement among themselves, and many elderly leaseholders might not want to go down that road without lots of explanation and help. One of our concerns was that there is not much help or publicity about that process, and that issue could be looked at. Service charges are often terribly opaque, and proper information is not provided. The right to challenge is not explained, and challenge through a tribunal is difficult. Another thing that would help is a simpler housing court system, which we hear the Government are going to introduce. The quicker they do that, the better.