GO-AHEAD FOR ROAD AND RAIL SCHEMES IS ‘TO GET THE ECONOMY GROWING’ SAYS TRANSPORT SECRETARY

GIVING the go-ahead for 50 road and rail upgrade schemes is aimed at getting the economy growing, according to Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander.

Speaking on GB News, she said: “It’s an important day, because we’re green-lighting about 50 rail and road upgrades across the country. Some of the schemes that have had uncertainty hanging over them for a number of years have now been given the go-ahead.

“That includes rail schemes, such as the Midlands rail hub that the Chancellor spoke about in her speech, also the digital signalling on the East Coast Main Line Between Edinburgh and London. We’re building new stations as well as restoring train services to some towns that haven’t had a rail service for decades.

“We are reopening a rail station at Portishead…there’s going to be a new station at Haxby in Yorkshire, which is on the York-Scarborough line, two new stations as well in Devon, at places called Wellington and Cullompton.

“Not only will this lead to tens of thousands of new jobs in the construction process, it will also link people to centres of economic activity, and it will also unlock development sites where new homes can be built, because as part of this government’s plan for change, we’ve obviously got a commitment to build 1.5 million homes over the duration of this Parliament.

“So this is about improving journeys for people. A number of road schemes in there as well, such as building a new road between the M54 and M6 in Staffordshire.”

Asked how they are funded, she said: “The Chancellor committed £92 billion of capital spending for transport infrastructure in the spending review.

“Now, some of that is the really big schemes that, for example, HS2 between London and Birmingham, East West Rail, the trans-Pennine route upgrade between Manchester and York. But she was able to take long-term decisions in the national interest to invest in assets where we are going to yield the benefits over many years and decades to come.

“And so these are one-off capital schemes. It’s not that day to day revenue spending, and it’s completely the right thing to do to invest in transport infrastructure in order to get the economy growing.

“Because if we can get businesses thriving, then obviously that’s good for the exchequer in terms of tax receipts, and that means money available to invest in public services in the NHS and schools, which we know are people’s priorities.”