Transport for the North: Funding

Debate between Rosie Winterton and Andrew Stephenson

Wednesday 17th March 2021 Commons Chamber

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Rosie Winterton)]

That is not really a point of order, but it is up to the Member who has the Adjournment debate to take a reasonable amount of time, and I have to say that I have seen Adjournment debates in which the Member in charge has taken considerably longer than the right hon. Lady. I think the Minister does have adequate time to reply.

[Andrew Stephenson]

I will always defer to your guidance, Madam Deputy Speaker. For the record, I was waiting behind the Speaker’s Chair for at least five minutes, but there was a Minister at the Dispatch Box and, due to social distancing, it would have been inappropriate for me to come into the Chamber and on to the Front Bench while the previous Minister was here.

At Prime Minister’s questions on 24 February, the right hon. Lady said:

“Is the 40% cut to Transport for the North’s budget part of the Prime Minister’s plans for levelling up the north?”

In response, the Prime Minister said:

“There has been no such cut, and we intend to invest massively in Northern Powerhouse Rail, and in railways in the north and across the entire country.”—[Official Report, 24 February 2021; Vol. 689, c. 911.]

Transport for the North became a statutory body in April 2018. I was proud to serve as a Government Whip on the statutory instrument Committee that oversaw the process at the time.

Let us first look at the budget that has been available to Transport for the North since it was established. Transport for the North has had a core funding grant of £10 million per year since it was established as a statutory body. That settlement has been used to support core operations, as well as to underpin Transport for the North’s medium-term financial strategy through the maintenance of reserves. The Department and Transport for the North have agreed a minimum reserve of £2 million.

However, this financial year, partly as a consequence of the coronavirus pandemic, Transport for the North underspent its core grant and built up significant reserves. According to its own forecast, its reserves would have grown to an excessive £9.5 million if its funding had remained unchanged this year. Ministers therefore took the decision to adjust Transport for the North’s core settlement this year, allocating £7 million for the current financial year and £6 million for the next. That is a prudent and sensible use of taxpayers’ money that ensures that Transport for the North still has enough to continue to deliver on its statutory functions while making sure that it does not continue to build up unnecessarily large reserves.

To come to the crux of the argument, it is important to note that the core funding grant is just one of several funding streams that make up Transport for the North’s budget. During 2018-19—its first financial year as a statutory body—some £388,000 was available for the Rail North partnership grant. That has risen year on year, with £680,000 available this financial year and a further rise to more than £750,000 anticipated for the next financial.

Likewise, when Transport for the North was established as a statutory body, £15 million was made available for Northern Powerhouse Rail in 2018-19. Again, that amount has risen year on year, with £59 million available this year, rising to £67 million in the next financial year, subject to the usual agreement of programme activity with the Department, as co-client.

In the 2015 spending review, Transport for the North was allocated up to £150 million to support its integrated and smart travel programme. It has utilised only £24 million in the past five years to enable the roll-out of smart ticketing throughout the north. Additionally, it incurred development, business-case and other project costs of around £10 million, but was unable to produce a business case for its ambitious multi-modal projects that was acceptable to all transport operators in the north.

The multi-year funding for Transport for the North’s integrated and smart travel programme was always due to expire at the end of this financial year. We are considering how best to deliver more effectively the roll-out of smart ticketing to improve passenger services throughout the region.

What all that amounts to is that the Prime Minister was right in his assertion that there has been “no such cut”. Taking into account all the funding streams available to Transport for the North, its budget has not been reduced by 40%. To that end, impartial website Fullfact published a piece on 3 March, in reference to the 40% reduction quoted by the right hon. Lady. It stated:

“This much is being removed from Transport for the North’s core funding, though not from its total funding. It will be able to access some extra funding from other programmes to supplement its core funding.”

I am happy to provide even more clarity on those figures. First, the 40% reduction in Transport for the North’s core funding will not take place until the next financial year. Secondly, looking at its core funding for 2021-22, the Department has agreed that Transport for the North can charge £2.5 million of the costs that previously came from its core budget to the Northern Powerhouse Rail programme, significantly reducing the impact of the reduction in its core expenditure.

The right hon Lady again asked the Prime Minister, in a written question on 1 March, about Transport for the North’s funding settlement, and the Prime Minister responded promptly on 4 March that Transport for the North’s overall funding means that it will have access to over £70 million this coming financial year alone.

For the avoidance of doubt, let me quote what the Prime Minister said in response to the right hon. Lady:

“A reply will be sent in due course. Transport for the North’s overall funding means they will have access to over £70 million this coming financial year alone. We are building on the £29 billion we have invested in transport in the north since 2010 with: the Integrated Rail Plan bringing together HS2, Northern Powerhouse Rail, and our multi-billion-pound rail investment programme; our £5 billion investment into local bus and cycle links, including in the North; our £4.8 billion Levelling Up Fund which will benefit communities across the region; and our £4.2 billion intra-city transport fund, benefitting bus, train, and tram services across our 8 largest city regions. And at Budget, we reaffirmed our commitment to northern infrastructure, with: the launch of the UK Infrastructure Bank, headquartered in Leeds; a new government economic campus in Darlington; investment in offshore wind port infrastructure in Teesside and Humberside; and over £450 million in Towns Fund Deals for towns across the north—investing in infrastructure and culture from Middlesbrough to Bolton, to Rochdale and Scunthorpe.”

I think that more than clarifies and settles the matter of the adjustments to Transport for the North’s funding. The settlement is fair, reasonable and appropriate, and indeed Transport for the North will continue to receive more funding than any other sub-national transport body.

Lately, the subject of Transport for the North’s funding has too often been conflated with investment in northern transport and the Government’s commitment to levelling up more generally, and again I would like to set the record straight. To be clear, Transport for the North is not, and has never been, a delivery body. It is a strategic body, there to provide advice to the Government—something that it is perfectly able to do within its current funding settlement. Therefore, a reduction in Transport for the North’s core funding will not impact on the delivery of the vital infrastructure projects that the north needs. The Government are wholly committed to levelling up all parts of the country, including the north. Therefore, £29 billion has been invested across the north since 2010. There is still a long way to go, but we are on the right track.

I do not have time tonight to list the many schemes and investments that we are progressing across the north, but I will mention a few. The dualling of the A66 has seen its construction time scale halved by the Government’s Project Speed. The planned reopening of the Northumberland line to passenger services will better connect our communities in the north-east. We are embracing our ambition of a zero-carbon future with a planned hydrogen transport hub in the Tees Valley.

Last July, my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State announced an initial £589 million, with more to follow, for the trans-Pennine route upgrade, delivering much-needed rail capacity and reliability between Leeds and Manchester. In addition, I am pleased that the right hon. Lady shares my joy at the new freeport being established on the Humber, alongside two other sites in the north, at Liverpool and Teesside. Furthermore, I am surprised she did not mention that the work on the improvement scheme for the A63 Castle Street in Hull is under way. She mentioned the incredibly beautiful bridge, to which many of her colleagues have paid tribute—the Murdoch’s Connection bridge—that is providing safe and convenient crossings for pedestrians and cyclists. The very fact that we are getting on with these schemes underlines our commitment to levelling up.

I could go on, but the point is that changing Transport for the North’s core funding settlement does not alter the Government’s commitment to the north or to levelling up. Our ambition is to deliver world-class infrastructure in the region and unlock the potential of the northern powerhouse. Opposition Members will continue, I am sure, to play games and try to score points, but this Government will not be distracted from building back better and delivering record investment to the region.

Question put and agreed to.

High Speed Rail (West Midlands – Crewe) Bill

Debate between Rosie Winterton and Andrew Stephenson

Ping Pong & Ping Pong: House of Commons
Tuesday 19th January 2021 Commons Chamber

[The Minister of State, Department for Transport (Andrew Stephenson)]

I beg to move, That this House agrees with Lords amendment 1.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Rosie Winterton)]

With this it will be convenient to discuss Lords amendments 2 to 12.

[Andrew Stephenson]

Let me say at the outset that the majority of these amendments are clarifications, corrections and updated references. When a Bill has had such a lengthy passage through these Houses as this one, it is perhaps amazing that there are so few amendments that need to be made. Let me say also that the Government accept all the amendments made by the other place to this Bill.

As you would expect, Madam Deputy Speaker, I will provide some comment on the more substantial amendments, but before I do so, I would like to thank the other place for its careful scrutiny of this Bill. In particular, I thank my noble Friend Baroness Vere of Norbiton for her very great skill and diligence in steering this Bill through the other place. I also wish to extend especial thanks to Lord Hope of Craighead and his Committee for their careful and considered approach to the petitions against the Bill in the other place and for the way they handled their processes during the global pandemic.

Turning to the amendments, Lords amendment 2 introduces a requirement on the nominated undertaker to provide and publish annual reports on the impact of the construction of the High Speed 2 project on ancient woodland. This is a scheme-wide amendment: it applies not just to phase 2a of HS2, but to all phases, including those that the House has not yet considered. The requirement in this amendment to report is about ancient woodland, but I have also committed to wider environmental reporting on the impacts of HS2. I look forward to the first of these environmental reports being published, and I am absolutely committed to holding HS2 Ltd to account on environmental matters.

Lords amendment 3 introduces a new requirement on the Government to undertake the consultation prior to 1 May 2021. This consultation is to be for the people of Shropshire, Staffordshire and Cheshire, and it is to seek views on various types of impacts from the HS2 works. The Government opposed this amendment in the other place, but that was on the basis that it was deemed unnecessary. There has already been considerable consultation with the people of Shropshire, Staffordshire and Cheshire. Nevertheless, I think that accepting this amendment is the right thing to do. As the Minister for HS2, I have been charged with resetting the relationship between the HS2 project and local communities. I have worked continuously with colleagues across the House who represent communities along the line of route. I am listening, and I will not stand in the way of the opportunity to listen more through further consultation. I want to reassure the House that I am taking action on what I hear, where it is needed. Further, I will do all I can to ensure that officials and those working on the project for HS2 Ltd put any consultation responses to the best possible use.

I am acutely aware of the strength of feeling in the affected communities, and I am therefore mindful of the motivation and the sentiments of those who supported and voted for this amendment in the other place. As I have mentioned, extensive consultation has already been undertaken. It is crucial, though, that we remember that local communities are at the heart of this project. HS2 is a massive infrastructure project from which the whole nation will benefit, but there are those who will have to bear a burden for that to happen.

I cannot move on without mentioning that there is a price tag of around £350,000 attached to the consultation. However, the costs of running a consultation are minor compared with the costs of delaying the Bill and of not listening to those who are directly affected by the impacts of these works. Let me therefore be very clear about consultation and engagement. The passing of this Bill does not mean the end of engagement with local communities. Indeed, it is only the beginning of a renewed effort to try to mitigate the impacts of the HS2 works on them. Therefore, while there has already been extensive consultation, I see no harm in there being even more.

The last amendment to which I wish to draw the House’s attention is Lords amendment 5. It simply clarifies when a new road constructed under the powers in the Bill becomes specifically a public highway, and when a temporary highway ceases to be a public highway. This clarifies the position for local authorities and has been highlighted as necessary through learning the lessons from phase 1. The remainder of the Lords amendments—amendments 1 and 4, and 6 to 12—delete references to some specific phase 1 works that have been made obsolete by a Transport and Works Act 1992 order, delete references made obsolete by the repeal of some local Acts and update other references in relation to the Communications Act 2003.

The Bill has already taken far longer to go through Parliament than was anticipated when the legislation was introduced in July 2017. I do not want to delay it further today. I want this section of the railway to be built so that we can hasten the benefits of HS2 to the north as soon as possible and, given all that I have said, I urge the House to agree to the Lords amendments.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Rosie Winterton)]

Before I call the shadow Minister, I should say that there will be a three-minute time limit on Back Benchers, because we have only an hour for this debate. I remind hon. Members that when a speaking limit is in effect for Back Benchers, a countdown clock will be visible on the screens of hon. Members participating virtually and on the screens in the Chamber. For hon. Members participating physically in the Chamber, the usual clock in the Chamber will operate.