Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the value for money achieved through (a) the sale of Network Rail arches to Telereal Trillium and Blackstone Property Partners and (b) Network Rail’s re-purchase of some railway arches.

The sale of Network Rail arches to Telereal Trillium and Blackstone Property Partners achieved value for money from the taxpayer, with £1.46bn of proceeds raised. Any properties required as part of known upgrades during CP6 were excluded from the original sale. The costs of taking back any further arches will be taken into consideration as part of the cost of any potential future upgrades. It is also worth noting that before the sale of arches, in instances where NR needed to take back arches for railway purposes, NR would have lost the rental income and therefore the value equation is similar.