Zero-emission Vehicles, Drivers and HS2

Sharon Hodgson Excerpts

Monday 16th October 2023 Commons Chamber

[Mr Harper]

I would be pleased to meet my hon. Friend and colleagues, and I can confirm the money that we have put aside. I have already discussed the plans with Network Rail, which is starting work on detailing those plans. I am happy to meet him to talk them through in more detail.

[Mrs Sharon Hodgson (Washington and Sunderland West) (Lab)]

I have campaigned for more than 18 years for the reopening of the Leamside line, which would enable the metro to come to Washington in my constituency —14 years longer than the hon. Member for Sedgefield (Paul Howell), who is a newcomer to that campaign. So hon. Members can imagine my joy when I saw it in print, the day after the Prime Minister’s speech—only for it to disappear 24 hours later. Far from it being the Opposition who went out spinning, it was Ministers on the Prime Minister’s own Front Bench who were on the airwaves spinning that nothing had changed after it disappeared. If it was just illustrative, why did it need to be deleted from the Network North document with other such illustrations?

[Mr Harper]

It was not deleted from the Network North document. The Network North document that was published on the website has not changed, so— [Interruption.] The hon. Member for Sheffield, Heeley (Louise Haigh) keeps going on about illustrative stuff. As I have said, £12 billion of the £36 billion was allocated to combined authority Mayors, so what it gets spent on is ultimately their decision. I know that that is a priority for the north-east, so it is one of the things on which we are working with them on a business case.

I am very pleased that the hon. Member for Washington and Sunderland West (Mrs Hodgson) and my hon. Friend the Member for Sedgefield (Paul Howell) are both campaigning—it is always good when these things are done on a cross-party basis. I know that this is a priority for a region. The money is now there to pay for it, which was not the case before we took the decision to cancel the second phase of HS2. These things are only now able to happen because we took that decision. If the Opposition decide that they want to campaign to build the second phase of HS2, things such as the Leamside line will not happen.

Local Bus Services: Funding

Sharon Hodgson Excerpts

Wednesday 17th May 2023 Commons Chamber

[Liz Twist (Blaydon) (Lab)]

I am pleased to have secured this debate on Government funding of our local bus services. Millions of people rely on bus services every day to get to work, to seek healthcare or even just to visit the shops for a day out. This affects very many parts of the country, not just my constituency of Blaydon or the north-east. The state of bus services is an issue that comes up repeatedly, particularly post covid. It matters to individuals and communities, which is why I have raised this issue in Westminster Hall, in a previous Adjournment debate and at Prime Minister’s questions. I will continue to do so in the future.

The purpose of the debate, when I applied for it, was to ask the Government to address the fundamental issue of how we move from a series of welcome but short-term funding extensions, principally through the bus recovery grant, to a more stable and long-term plan to ensure that we do not see further reductions in bus services. That plan should take us through to the introduction of bus service improvement plans and the actions needed to make positive improvements to our bus services.

We cannot afford cliff edge after cliff edge at quarterly intervals, with bus operators issuing notices of service reductions and constant uncertainty for passengers about whether or not they will get to work or college or visit family, as has been the situation recently. Funding continues be impacted by low bus patronage, which is still at less than 80%, with a particular reduction in bus pass users. I note that, in this morning’s statement, the Minister said that patronage rates were back up to 90%. That is not a figure I recognise for the north-east, having checked it.

The impact of low patronage is both reduced income to bus operators and costs for local councils, via local transport authority support to maintain those vital bus services. I think of the maintained service to Kibblesworth in my constituency, which would have lost its only bus link had our local transport authority not stepped in. Kibblesworth is only five miles from Newcastle city centre—the same distance from Westminster to Canary Wharf—but it could have been left isolated by bus operator proposals. The Minister will know of many other instances of services affected, as we share a number of bus routes through our constituencies. Buses through Blaydon run through other parts of County Durham. What a coincidence that we had an oral statement on this issue this afternoon, before this debate.

I remind the House of the practical effects of the bus reductions. Jen and Frances are two constituents who have been in touch regularly because their lives have been drastically affected by recent changes to the bus services. They have told me how they used to get on the first bus that came into the terminal to have a day out in a random area and get to know the region better. Sadly, following the recent changes, that is no longer a possibility, as cuts and short-term cancellations have left them with no confidence in the bus services matching up and taking them where they want to go.

Eleanor, a student midwife, has told my office of her difficulties getting to and from work with a reduced service, meaning that no buses are running when she starts or finishes her shift. Another constituent, an older woman, used to travel between Consett in the Minister’s constituency and Greenside in mine, changing buses in Chopwell, to visit her grandchildren. Now the bus times are so far apart, her only option is to rely on lifts or not travel at all.

For all those people, I was grateful to have the opportunity to raise those issues directly in the House on previous occasions. But problems still affect bus services all over the country. Without further intervention, they could lead to drastic cuts to services across the entire bus network. Bus companies and local authorities need to be able to plan effectively. We need proper solutions so that customers can have confidence in their bus services, and we need a plan that allows the sector to thrive and to move forward. On top of that, we need to superimpose the work to be taken forward through bus service improvement plans.

In the north-east, we have successfully bid for bus service improvement plan money. Changes are already happening in the north-east, through the work that Transport North East is doing with the bus service improvement plan funding. We were successful in a bid for £163.5 million, of which an initial £117.8 million has been received. Transport North East has begun to use that money to transform the local transport offer in the north-east. It has already implemented a £1 fare for travellers who are 21 and under, as the Minister will know, and a £3 day ticket allowing people to travel across all Tyne and Wear, Northumberland and Durham in a cost-effective manner. It is working on plans to introduce park and ride facilities, improved fares for all travellers and bus priority measures to speed up journey times and improve reliability. We know that good work is going on, but there is no getting around the fact that the Government have presided over a spiral of decline in our bus services that has failed communities.

In “Bus Back Better: national bus strategy for England”, published in 2021, the Government promised

“great bus services for everyone, everywhere”

and services

“so often that you don’t need a timetable.”

But the total number of miles driven by buses has plummeted by 175 million in the last five years, with 1,000 services lost in the last year alone. That is the context in which we received the Government’s statement earlier today, which laid out a new two-year funding settlement. So instead of continuing with my planned speech, I would like to take the opportunity to ask the Minister a series of questions about his statement.

[Mrs Sharon Hodgson (Washington and Sunderland West) (Lab)]

Before my hon. Friend moves on to her questions, can I intervene?

[Liz Twist]

Of course.

[Mrs Hodgson]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend. Does she agree that, once we get the combined authority and the elected Mayor for the whole region, one of the things we might be able to do is to re-regulate the integrated transport services, as the Mayor of Manchester has done? That might be what we eventually need to do to be able to fix some of the problems we see with our bus services.

[Liz Twist]

I thank my hon. Friend for her comments. Yes, absolutely, that is the case. Although in Transport North East we have currently opted for an enhanced partnership, with the way that bus services are developing and routes are being dropped, that may well be something that we should look at in the future.

First, I note that the Minister stated that he spoke to Councillor Martin Gannon, chair of the North East Joint Transport Committee, prior to making his statement in the House this afternoon. He will be aware then of Councillor Gannon’s concerns that the amount being provided nationally to protect bus services seems to have shrunk significantly. While capped fares are welcome, they will not be much use to people if they cannot actually get on a bus in the first place, which is too often the case for many of the Minister’s constituents and mine. And once bus services are cut, it is practically impossible to get them reinstated, so I agree with Councillor Gannon.

Of course, capped fares are welcome, not least as a means of driving up bus patronage again, which in itself will sustain bus services, but will the Minister explain how the money announced this afternoon will be distributed? What is the plan after 2024, once the review mentioned in the Minister’s statement has been carried out? What criteria will be used?

What projections does the Department have for the number of services that are likely to be lost over the course of the new two-year settlement? How many of those will be in the north-east? The Minister will know—indeed, he said as much this afternoon—that that level of bus recovery grant and local transport authority support will not sustain all the bus routes we currently have. We need those bus routes. I note from his statement that the additional funding to local transport authorities will be to those that did not receive bus service improvement plan funding. Will he confirm whether that is correct? How will that affect Transport North East?

On the £140 million announced for the bus service operators grant, to be delivered over what I believe is one year and nine months, the Minister will be aware that that is not enough to maintain services at current levels, including in our region. I asked him this afternoon how many routes he would be prepared to see go. Can he confirm how that money will be allocated to bus operators and what criteria will be used to determine the distribution? How will the operators and passengers in my constituency, and indeed in his and across the north-east, be affected by the funding? How will local transport authorities be able to cover the gaps in essential services that will follow those cuts? I should make it clear that I am not here to argue the corner of private bus operators; I am here to argue for reliable, quality bus services for my constituents who rely on buses to get about.

Finally, let me ask the Minister this: do not the changes announced today leave the national bus strategy in tatters? Money that was earmarked for proposed new infrastructure, fare pricing and routes appears to have been subsumed into a plan for just keeping our bus services going, rather than a plan to make bus services a really attractive option. I am, of course, very glad that Transport North East was successful in its bid for BSIP funding, but I am disappointed that we will not now see some of the positive improvements for which we had hoped and planned.

As I have said, my constituents want to see a bold and transformed bus offer with improved reliability, improved fares and better connectivity, but I fear that the funding announcements made today will not produce that result. We need to build a plan that helps every community to move forward with reliable transport, and, as the Minister knows and as he heard earlier today, Labour has a plan to do just that. We are promising the biggest reform to the bus system in 40 years, which would put the power back where it belongs—in the hands of the communities who depend on buses the most. The Government must follow suit if they are to revive confidence in bus ridership and help to build that bold and transformational plan for the future.

I look forward to hearing the Minister’s response to my questions. I hope very much that he will note the concern that is felt for our bus services, and explain how he intends to ensure that our constituents do not lose any more vital services.

Oral Answers to Questions

Sharon Hodgson Excerpts

Thursday 2nd March 2023 Commons Chamber

[Huw Merriman]

I am not frightened of the answer at all. I am an advocate for HS2 because, as I have mentioned, it will level up the country, interconnect our great cities, reduce the time for a train to Manchester by 54 minutes to one hour and 11 minutes, and deliver not just jobs for this country, but jobs we can export to other high-speed rail lines across the world.

[Mrs Sharon Hodgson (Washington and Sunderland West) (Lab)]

14. What recent assessment he has made with Cabinet colleagues of the future viability of rolling stock manufacturing in the north-east.

[The Minister of State, Department for Transport (Huw Merriman)]

Me again, Mr Speaker.

The Government recognise the importance of the rolling stock supply chain on both the national and local economies. Since 2010, over 5,300 vehicles ordered by train operators in the UK have been assembled at manufacturing facilities across the country, reflecting in the region of £10.6 billion on orders for rolling stock built in the UK since 2010.

[Mrs Hodgson]

As we have already heard this morning, Hitachi Rail is one of the anchors of north-east manufacturing expertise and innovation, supporting hundreds of jobs at the Newton Aycliffe site and thousands more in the wider supply chain, and it is incredible that the north-east will have a role in manufacturing the UK’s very first high speed trains for HS2. However, in the interim will the Minister now provide urgent clarity on the short-term rolling stock pipeline so that this exemplar of north-east manufacturing continues to support regional and economic growth long into the future?

[Huw Merriman]

I was up in the north-east, in Tyne and Wear, last week, where it was a pleasure to meet the Tyne and Wear Metro Nexus team as they unveiled their new Class 555 trains, and I wish them well in that endeavour. Hitachi was one of the bidders for that and of course over 1,000 carriages have been built at the Newton Aycliffe plant, including orders for Great Western, TransPennine Express, East Midlands Railway and West Coast. I will happily write to the hon. Lady to give her the answer she seeks, but I assure her that I am supportive of all our great railway manufacturers in this country.

Leamside Line

Sharon Hodgson Excerpts

Tuesday 8th February 2022 Westminster Hall

[Mr Philip Hollobone (in the Chair)]

Before we begin, I would like to remind Members that Mr Speaker encourages us all to observe social distancing and to wear face-masks.

[Mrs Sharon Hodgson (Washington and Sunderland West) (Lab)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered the potential merits of reopening the Leamside Line.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Hollobone. I thank all Members in attendance. I can say that there are colleagues here today just as passionate as I am on this subject, and I look forward to hearing their contributions. It is important to emphasise from the outset the unity on this issue in the north-east from those on all sides of the political spectrum, and from the business community, the transport sector, local authorities and the general public.

I would like to outline the vision for the Leamside Line. It has three key purposes. The first is local: it would allow for an expansion of the Tyne and Wear Metro through the South of Tyne and Wearside loop, which would connect Washington’s 70,000 residents to the system. The second is regional: it would open up passenger rail services for the whole Leamside corridor and its population of 124,000 people, from Ferryhill to Pelaw. It connects that population, and the 1 million people with indirect access to the line, to Tyneside, Wearside, Durham and Teesside. It would revolutionise transport across the region. The final is national: it would support east coast main line capacity for passenger and vital freight services, as well as national rail connectivity. Those three aspects form the overall strategic ambitions for the reopening of the line.

I am incredibly happy to have secured this very timely debate, following a huge event on Friday 4 February 2022, in which I visited three strategic points along the line to visualise where it will one day run, along with colleagues who are present today, local authority leaders, and representatives from: Transport North East, led by Tobyn Hughes; the Northern Powerhouse Partnership; the North East local enterprise partnership; and the North East England chamber of commerce.

[Liz Twist (Blaydon) (Lab)]

I thank my hon. Friend for securing this really important debate. I was pleased to join my hon. Friend and the hon. Member for Sedgefield (Paul Howell) at Follingsby in Gateshead to show the unity on proceeding with this line, which makes excellent sense for all kinds of reasons.

[Mrs Hodgson]

I am very grateful to my hon. Friend for joining us, although it was freezing. We were in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Jarrow (Kate Osborne), who was unable to join us but did have representatives present.

The next location we visited was in my patch, in Washington. It was in the shadow of Penshaw monument, near the magnificent Victoria viaduct, which stretches over what is, in my opinion, the most beautiful part of Wearside. The viaduct was built in 1838, and it shows the scale of the engineering skill, the genius, the hard work and, through its beauty, the hedonism that characterised the region at that time, which was the powerhouse of global Great Britain. It is a shame to see such a feat of engineering go unused. It is incredible, however, to learn that with minimal reinforcements, the viaduct will be ready to take rail services, some 200 years after it was built.

The last time a train crossed that bridge was in 1992, when the line was mothballed after serving for around 30 years as a diversionary route for the east coast main line. It even took the Queen’s train across the Wear. However, it had been in infrequent use since 1963, when the infamous Beeching cuts were made, and Washington station has not been used since.

Washington was a very different place at that time. It was populated mostly by families who were dependent for work on the many pig farms that dot the area, or the chemical works. In 1963, when the rail link was taken away, a Government White Paper proposed that Washington be developed as a mark II new town, in order to stimulate faster progress and raise the scale and quality of the region’s urban development.

Washington was developed as a series of villages near-equidistant from Sunderland, Newcastle and Durham, and new industries, especially the automotive industry, thrived there. Hon. Members will be aware that Nissan is in my constituency. We should be careful not to romanticise or become overly nostalgic about how life was then, but there was a determined national policy and vision for the development of the town, and properly funded public services made the town prosperous. Graeme Bell, who worked on the town development corporation in the 1960s, wrote in 2019:

“Our brief for Washington New Town was to create ‘a town in which people want to live’. So simple, so complex. We started with the consultant’s masterplan which envisaged a place where the car was king. … a grid of dual carriageways with grade-separated junctions was to criss-cross the countryside to enable the 50,000 planned population to travel between home, work and play. This was to be Los Angeles-on-the-Wear!

A fore-runner of the design for Milton Keynes, the idea was that by taking the traffic out of the built-up areas, car-free spaces could be created where families and particularly children could safely walk to school, play and socialise. Within the grid were also to be factories and offices – jobs that were crucial to the success of Washington – and shops and parks, so residents wouldn’t need to travel great distances to live a good life.”

Those who live in Washington, or live and work around Washington, can see that vision of how it was intended to be. The latter part of the vision, however, was dismantled as industries such as the pits and the chemical works were decimated, and policies led to the loss of the good public services that fulfil the needs of modern life. The story of how we moved into that situation is one that we all know well.

Washington is now home to a number of areas identified as left-behind neighbourhoods, where social infrastructure is lacking. Residents have markedly worse socioeconomic outcomes than the residents of other equally deprived areas. The all-party parliamentary group for “left behind” neighbourhoods notes that “steady bus service decline” and low car ownership,

“combined with rail closures have led to these places being disconnected and cut off from essential services and amenities”.

This Chamber recently heard about the major cuts to Tyne and Wear bus services in a debate led by my hon. Friend the Member for Blaydon (Liz Twist). Those cuts now seem inevitable as covid-19 funding unwinds. With our local authorities being told to bear the brunt of keeping our public services afloat, I worry that residents dependent on those services risk being stranded. Meanwhile, 40% of households in left-behind neighbourhoods have no car; in England, the average is 26%.

Those circumstances make things even harder for residents of Washington, which, as I mentioned, was built at the dawn of the automotive age. The design of the town, combined with the current insufficient provision, means that the demands of modern society are not being met. Residents are being left behind; like populations in other towns across the country, they have to get out to get on. Great jobs, especially in the car industry, are on the doorstep, but they are highly competitive, and not all of them are accessible to those who live closest to them. Young people often find themselves having to move to neighbouring cities for good jobs, and that creates a de facto brain drain. For those who do not make it out, do not drive and cannot make the 40-minute bus journey into an education centre, opportunity is therefore stifled.

[Mary Glindon (North Tyneside) (Lab)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this really important debate. She expresses very eloquently the real problem for people in our area: if they do not have a car, their chances of getting the employment that they really want are cut massively. By not providing public transport and not agreeing to Labour’s plans, this Government are strangling opportunity for people in the north-east.

[Mrs Hodgson]

I thank my hon. Friend for her comments; she is right.

Leamside is the solution to these transport and connectivity problems. I welcome the sentiment behind the Government’s “Levelling Up” White Paper, published last week; it aims to level up the left behind, but the sentiment simply did not translate into tangible, real-world differences on the scale needed to level up the places that colleagues here and I represent. Connectivity matters. It is all about access. For the communities up and down this stretch of line, it is about access to education, jobs, business and leisure. It aids and expands access to economic benefits, health options, educational assets and cultural capital.

[Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne Central) (Lab)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend on bringing this important debate. I am the Member of Parliament for Newcastle Central—not only the place, but the mainline train station of the same name. Does she agree that the Leamside line would give people from across the region access to Newcastle institutions, such as Newcastle College and Newcastle University, and that it would also give those institutions access to the wider region? The interconnectivity of which she talks is so important economically, and in creating a critical mass of energy, innovation and skills that will allow our economy to thrive.

[Mrs Hodgson]

My hon. Friend is absolutely correct: the connectivity works both ways. This is not just about people being able to get out of Washington; it is about people across the region being able to come into Washington and see everything that Washington, Sunderland, South Tyneside, Durham, Gateshead and the whole region has to offer. This connectivity will mean that people from further afield can come to those places and access the cultural capital that we have to offer, as well as leisure and employment opportunities.

[Paul Howell (Sedgefield) (Con)]

I congratulate the hon. Member on securing this important debate. Does she agree that the Leamside line is important as a core piece of transport, but needs to be part of a joined-up picture? There are fantastic job opportunities on the line, but there need to be buses to connect them, and there needs to be a holistic solution.

[Mrs Hodgson]

I agree. That is why this debate links so well with the debate on buses that we had here a few weeks ago. We need the extra connectivity. The scheme is all very well for people who live near the Leamside line, but lots of people do not. They will need the whole passenger transport network to connect and link up.

As my hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle upon Tyne Central (Chi Onwurah) said, the reopening of the line would benefit the whole region; that is indicated by the presence here of non-Leamside line MPs. The line would give young apprentices who cannot afford a car access to Nissan and the International Advanced Manufacturing Park; it would enable workers to get to the two massive Amazon sites along the line; and it would give access to Doxford International Business Park and Integra 61 in Durham. All these employment centres provide over 25,000 jobs, and are growing.

[Peter Gibson (Darlington) (Con)]

As the hon. Lady will know, my constituency has received massive investment—Treasury jobs, the Darlington Economic Campus and a whole host of other civil service jobs. Does she agree that reopening the Leamside line would open up those job opportunities to her constituents, who could travel to Darlington?

[Mrs Hodgson]

I agree. People should be able to reach the jobs easily, wherever they are—and not just those who can afford a car. Often the car comes after the job; people need to be able to get to the job first.

Leamside is not only a solution to a problem, but an opportunity for the whole north-east. Every journey on the Metro by a commuter, shopper or tourist adds an average of £8.50 to the economy. Think of the boost that Leamside would give to the South Tyneside and Wearside Metro loop, even without the wider Leamside line. There are three benefits to this line, and the Metro is just one. This is a win, win, win, as I constantly say. It would mean that people lived and spent money in these local communities. It would change the socioeconomic future of the whole north-east. As Henri Murison said, it is vital for the whole northern powerhouse.

Levelling up the left-behind takes money, but it is question of priorities. Where our high streets are struggling, it is because the local economy is struggling unaided. Where our communities are declining, it is because the services that bind them together are being allowed to fall into disrepair. Where chances for generations of young people are being slashed, it is because the barriers to opportunities are allowed to continue to exist. These are political choices, but they can be addressed and reversed, just as the mothballing of the Leamside line can be reversed.

Before 1992, the line was used for freight purposes, which helped the east coast main line. The Minister will know that the Leamside line has the potential to extend capacity by some 50% on a vital, but highly congested, stretch of the east coast main line—the artery that links the north to Scotland.

[Paul Howell]

I thank the hon. Lady for giving way again. Does she agree that the Leamside line has the potential to provide resilience to the east coast main line? For a long stretch, there are just two tracks, and if anything goes wrong there, the connection between England and Scotland is effectively stopped.

[Mrs Hodgson]

I absolutely agree. As someone who has travelled up and down that line for almost 17 years, I know that when something goes wrong on that stretch and trains are stuck higher up the line, the trains cannot get to Newcastle. The whole thing then falls apart, as all of us who travel down that line know.

There is a comprehensive need for the Leamside line to be reopened—for national, regional and local purposes. Again, I stress the north-east unity—the Minister will hear that unity today—and the joint voice calling for the Leamside line to be reopened. When I took my seat in 2005, I quickly got to grips with this campaign, its importance, and the word “conurbation”. Washington is one of the largest conurbations in the UK without a rail or rapid transit link—I constantly mention that small fact.

I have presented five petitions to the House over 17 years, sent countless letters to the Department for Transport and the Minister’s predecessors, submitted evidence following a call for evidence on light rail, and recently co-sponsored three bids to the restoring your railway fund with the hon. Member for Sedgefield (Paul Howell), so it is fair to say that this means a lot to me. I am very proud of the cross-party nature of this campaign, both at local authority level and here in this House.

Where are we now? Leamside has featured as a significant element of previous local and current regional transport plans, including the 2021 North East transport plan and Transport for the North’s statutory advice. While the disappointing integrated rail plan in effect ruled out Government investment in the Leamside line for east coast main line purposes, the case remains strong.

I appreciate that the integrated rail plan indicated that the reinstatement of the Leamside line could be part of a devolution deal, but I believe it absolutely should be part of any forthcoming devolution deal. The hon. Member for Sedgefield and I discussed this with the Minister when we met earlier. However, until that deal is on the table, I do not want to see those promises used to kick the can down the road. I want Government co-operation in making the Leamside line a reality in the meantime. That means listening, as working with others, and, ultimately, financially helping with the steps needed to get there.

The north east joint transport committee has taken on the Government’s feedback, and is developing the umbrella strategic business case in phases. It has secured £100,000 in funding and is commissioning a strategic outline business case for the Metro loop element of the line.

We are taking matters into our own hands; the north-east is taking steps to achieve its ambitions, but it can only take itself so far, because our local authorities continue to be starved of cash. A project as significant and game-changing as the Leamside line will eventually need to be funded by central Government. Let us not beat about the bush: this is a very expensive piece of infrastructure, but it is needed and very much wanted.

I hope this debate shows the weight behind the will for the reinstatement of the Leamside line. I hope that, ultimately, the Government will listen to the north-east and match their rhetoric on levelling up with their commitment. The north-east is making inroads on reaching its ambitions. We hope that the Government will work with us to realise the potential of the Leamside corridor communities, secure a better future for the north-east, and future-proof national infrastructure by supporting the reopening of the Leamside line as soon as possible.

[Mr Philip Hollobone (in the Chair)]

The debate will continue until 4 o’clock. I am obliged to call the Front Benchers no later than 3.37 pm, and the guideline limits are 10 minutes for Her Majesty’s Opposition, 10 minutes for the Minister, and then Sharon Hodgson will have three minutes at the end of the debate to sum up the proceedings. In the meantime, I hope to get everybody in. We have just over 45 minutes, so if Members could moderate their speeches, everybody will be able to contribute. We will have an excellent example to start us off with from Peter Gibson.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mrs Hodgson]

I express my warm thanks and appreciation to all hon. Members who have taken part in this very important debate, to the excellent shadow Minister, my hon. Friend the Member for Slough (Mr Dhesi), and to the Minister. We have heard from Government and Opposition Members from across the whole region—from Newcastle down through Gateshead, South Tyneside, Sunderland, Durham and Darlington. As we have heard, the issue unites the whole region—all politicians, local authorities and agencies from business and transport—in one endeavour: to reopen the Leamside line for all the reasons that we have heard.

Passions can run deep on why we are at this point, but we all agree that we need to look forward with one united voice, and use that passion to achieve what we all desire: the reopening of the Leamside line to the benefit of all who would use it, across all our communities, for generations to come. We acknowledge that this would be a huge investment, but it is one that people of the north-east are long overdue. The return on that investment will be huge. We do not have that figure yet, but it is being worked on as we speak, as we discussed with the Minister earlier, and I am told that we will have it soon.

I hope that the Minister has been left in no doubt about our collective passion for this endeavour. I am sure that she will expect to find herself back here, perhaps in the not-too-distant future, for further such debates once we have further evidence and figures from our feasibility studies, and as we expand our case for the reopening of the Leamside line. I hope that this Minister—although my hon. Friend the Member for Slough may be the Minister when this happens—will be there to cut the ribbon. I very much look forward to that day.

[Mr Philip Hollobone (in the Chair)]

Maybe it is a good omen for the Leamside line that we have pulled into the platform earlier than scheduled.

Question put and agreed to.

Resolved,

That this House has considered the potential merits of reopening the Leamside Line.

Bus Services: North-east England

Sharon Hodgson Excerpts

Wednesday 24th November 2021 Westminster Hall

[Mrs Sharon Hodgson (Washington and Sunderland West) (Lab)]

It is an honour to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Dowd, and I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Blaydon (Liz Twist) for securing this important debate.

The Government’s lack of covid-19 support for our Tyne and Wear Metro means that bus services will certainly be cut in our region by £7.5 million next year, and I will explain why. As Members will be aware, the Metro is the third most used light rail network in the whole UK, with pre-pandemic passenger levels of 36 million per annum. Reducing service levels is just not an option for the Metro, but because central Government will not step in and play their part, our councils are being asked to take the burden of £4.1 million of extra payments to keep bus services afloat and help Nexus balance the books. We all know how cash-strapped our councils are, but they are having to pay more and more to cover the gaps that the Government are ignoring and widening. The Government would be wise to remember that our constituents can see that this is happening. It is not exactly levelling up, is it?

Again, our local authorities are being told to bear the brunt of keeping our public services afloat. Most recently, we were given nothing in the Budget on transport, because we have not got a metro Mayor. Meanwhile, down the road, £310 million is being pumped into transport in the Tees valley. I wonder what we should take from that. Are the Government going to hold our area to ransom because we do not have a devolution deal? People in our region have a specific need for bus services, and constituents frequently write to me about the poor bus provision across Sunderland and Washington.

During a recent roving street surgery in Oxclose in my constituency, nearly every household raised the issue of the poor bus service—in fact, it was the issue that was raised most on the doorstep. That was true not just for that area but across the whole of Washington. The issue was also raised at a public meeting I held in South Hylton, which is over in Sunderland, and I have been contacted by constituents in Usworth Hall, an estate with no bus services at all. With commercial companies providing bus services, it is little surprise that, despite being necessary, non-profitable services continue to disappear as local authorities struggle to fill the gaps.

The point of public transport is to offer a safe means of getting places, even during unsociable hours. That is especially necessary as car ownership levels in the north-east’s left-behind neighbourhoods are among the lowest in the country, while rail services range from being limited to being non-existent for the majority of the areas that I represent. So there is high reliance on bus services.

However, as we have heard, bus provision is declining and the communities that I represent are literally being left stranded. Limited rail services for many communities in the north-east only heightens the need for immediate and good bus provision, especially with the Government snubbing rail improvement projects such as the much-needed reopening of the Leamside line, which I know a lot of people in this room support.

The Chancellor has often said that no Government could budget for a pandemic. Well, neither could Nexus or our local authorities, and the effects of the pandemic are still being felt. It is surely the duty of Government to support public transport in its recovery. This is not a Government without money, as was made very clear by the Chancellor’s Budget just last month, with its announcements of tax cuts on short-haul flights and champagne. The decision not to support the Tyne and Wear transport network is a political one, which will see residents lose out every day and the local economy lose out in the long run.

So why are the Chancellor and his team so scared of putting their money, which we know they have, where their mouth, which we also know they have, is? For all their talk about levelling up, they are making their intentions clear by their inaction. Therefore I implore the Government to listen to Nexus, local authority leaders and all of us here today, and to ensure that bus provision in the north-east sufficiently serves our constituents every day of the week.

Oral Answers to Questions

Sharon Hodgson Excerpts

Thursday 29th April 2021 Commons Chamber

[Grant Shapps]

My right hon. Friend is absolutely right to highlight the threat. I wonder whether everybody realises that the Mayor of London would like to introduce this border tax, so that non-Londoners end up having to pay for his financial mismanagement of London. It is not on. It is called taxation without representation and, as our American cousins used to point out, that is tyranny.

[Mrs Sharon Hodgson (Washington and Sunderland West) (Lab)]

What assessment he has made of the potential merits of the full reopening of the Leamside line.

[The Minister of State, Department for Transport (Chris Heaton-Harris)]

The Leamside line is being assessed as part of Northern Powerhouse Rail and will be considered within the integrated rail plan.

[Mrs Hodgson [V]]

As the Minister said, the proposal to reopen the Leamside line in full is being considered as part of the integrated rail plan. We were told to expect an answer in March, then it was April, and now we are almost in May without any further news, so when can my constituents expect to find out if the Government intend to follow through on their promise to level up from Westminster to Wearside?

[Chris Heaton-Harris]

We certainly intend to follow through on our promises to the people in the north-east and Wearside, something that decades of Labour disinterest in that area have failed to deliver. Ahead of finalising the integrated rail plan, we are fully considering the evidence from all stakeholders; we have had an awful lot. I just remind the hon. Lady, who I know supports this scheme, that it was driven by local campaigners, at the start with a guy called Christopher Howarth, who was a Conservative campaigner. There was little interest from her party or its representatives before he got involved.

Oral Answers to Questions

Sharon Hodgson Excerpts

Thursday 3rd December 2020 Commons Chamber

[Rachel Maclean]

I thank my hon. Friend for his consistent advocacy for this free port programme, which will be of great benefit, I have no doubt, to his constituents. Ports and local authorities are welcome to submit their bids for free ports, including for Heysham, until 5 February 2021, and specific locations will then be chosen according to a process, as set out in the bidding proposals, but I am sure that Ministers will be delighted to meet him to discuss this further.

[Mrs Sharon Hodgson (Washington and Sunderland West) (Lab)]

What steps he has taken to support the aviation sector to maintain employment levels during the covid-19 pandemic.

[Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck (South Shields) (Lab)]

What steps he has taken to support the aviation sector to maintain employment levels during the covid-19 pandemic.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Robert Courts)]

The Government’s comprehensive support package includes the coronavirus job retention scheme, which will now run until the end of March 2021.

[Mrs Hodgson [V]]

Many hundreds of my constituents are reliant on jobs related to the aviation sector, so the Government’s financial support for businesses in this industry has been welcome. However, there are valid concerns surrounding the conditionality of that support, particularly among workers at Rolls-Royce, with their jobs at risk of being offshored. Will the Minister work to ensure that any financial support is translated into the protection of jobs here in the UK?