Mrs Pauline Latham (Mid Derbyshire) (Con) I beg to move, That this
House has considered Derby’s bid to host the headquarters
of Great British Railways It is a great pleasure to
serve under your chairmanship for, I think, the first time, Mr
Efford. I also warmly welcome my hon. Friend the Minister to her
place. The beauty of being a Back Bencher, with no ministerial
responsibility—I have to add that I have never wanted that
responsibility—is that we...Request free
trial
(Mid Derbyshire) (Con)
I beg to move,
That this House has considered Derby’s bid to host the
headquarters of Great British
Railways
It is a great pleasure to serve under your chairmanship for, I
think, the first time, Mr Efford. I also warmly welcome my hon.
Friend the Minister to her place. The beauty of being a Back
Bencher, with no ministerial responsibility—I have to add that I
have never wanted that responsibility—is that we can do anything
that we want to do. We can campaign for things that matter to us
and we can be successful—sometimes—in those campaigns. Yesterday
I was delighted to hear the Third Reading in the House of Lords
of my Marriage and Civil Partnership (Minimum Age) Bill, and we
should get Royal Assent today or tomorrow, so that is a
tremendous success for a Back Bencher. I have been passionate
about that issue for many years, so it was a great delight to do
that. Another of my passions was to get Derby designated the city
of culture. Sadly, I failed miserably on that. As a team in
Derby, we campaigned together, but we did not make it.
My other campaign is to get the Great British
Railways headquarters to Derby. I have been talking about
that for some time in Parliament and I am passionate that Derby
is the right place for it to be situated. Sadly, we do not have
many right hon. and hon. Members with us today to take part in
this debate—probably because the House sat so late last night and
9.30 on a Wednesday morning is not people’s favourite time to
come in—but I am passionate about the headquarters coming to
Derby. Of course, my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State
established the competition, which he announced last year, to
find the place that will host the headquarters of Great British Railways
Derby has submitted its bid and is eagerly waiting to find out
whether it will succeed in making it through to the second round.
Then there will be even more lobbying, but with a
much-anticipated public vote.
I firmly believe, as you would expect, Mr Efford, that Derby is
the right location for the headquarters. There are many reasons
why it is an important place for Great British
Railways and why the Minister and the Secretary of State
should choose Derby for its headquarters. First, Derby is at the
centre of the UK’s rail network. It has great connections north
and south, from Scotland to London and beyond, and, crucially,
east and west, offering a key path from the east midlands to the
west midlands and Wales, as well as to the east coast.
Secondly, Derby has so much rail history. Derby station first
opened in 1839, as one of the largest in the United Kingdom, when
Derby was home to the world’s first factory and the Midland
Railway. As soon as the railway arrived in Derby, the rail
industry set up shop there, too. Derby locomotive works was
constructed in 1840 and, in the years that followed, nearly 3,000
steam engines were built. The first ever roundhouse, for turning
engines, was built by Robert Stephenson in Derby. It is part of
what is now Derby College. [Interruption.] I welcome my hon.
Friend the Member for South Derbyshire (Mrs Wheeler). From 1934,
Derby produced diesels, and then in 1947 it built Britain’s first
main-line diesel locomotives. Now, we are at the forefront of
developing alternative train-based power sources that complement
the progressive roll-out of electrification. HydroFLEX, Britain’s
first train converted to hydrogen operation, was designed in
Derby by Porterbrook.
(Strangford) (DUP)
I commend the hon. Lady for her dedication to all the subject
matter on which she has delivered the legislation coming through
on marriage. I support that and was very pleased to see it. I
also commend her for her work in this area. Connectivity is
critical but does she agree that that is also true of the private
sector, of which I believe Derby has a large proportion?
Connectivity is part of the pursuit of the headquarters
of Great British Railways
but the partnership with the private sector is crucial to
advancing it.
The hon. Lady mentioned hydrogen. We in Northern Ireland have
some connections with hydrogen and we are pleased that she is
promoting it. All I know about Derby is that it has a football
team that is in trouble, but I am pleased to come here and
support the hon. Lady.
Mrs Latham
I thank the hon. Gentleman for his intervention. It never fails
to amaze me how the hon. Gentleman from Northern Ireland can have
an interest in what is happening in Derby. It is very important
that we include the whole of the United Kingdom and work with all
of it when and if we get the Great British
Railways in Derby. It is important that Northern Ireland,
Scotland and all the other regions are included, so I thank him
for that intervention.
Alstom, which has had various names and iterations, is the
current train building company in Derby, and it plans to build
the first brand-new fleet of hydrogen trains in conjunction with
Eversholt Rail. Similarly, Porterbrook and Rolls-Royce recently
launched the first 100 mph hybrid battery-diesel train on
Chiltern Railways, which links London with Oxford and Birmingham.
It is very important that we look to our history, but that we
also look to the future of the Great British
Railways and rail innovation.
Derby is at the heart of rail innovation. It is home to the
largest cluster of rail engineering companies anywhere in Europe,
with an international reputation for rail excellence and
innovation.
(Nottingham South)
(Lab)
The hon. Member is making a compelling case for Derby very
effectively. Does she agree with me that Great British
Railways would benefit from that innovation that she was
starting to talk about? Derby’s rail industry is famous for the
revolutionary tilting trains that have gone on to be hugely
successful. They were first developed in Derby as a result of the
technological know-how of the British Rail research team, and
that expertise continues in our universities in both Derby and
Nottingham. I believe that, at one point in the 1970s, the team
also developed plans for a flying saucer. Is that not precisely
the kind of innovative, radical thinking that Great British
Railways needs?
Mrs Latham
We have the expertise in Derby and it is important that we spread
it around. If the Great British
Railways comes to Derby, it will benefit Nottingham and
other counties, including Staffordshire and Leicestershire,
because we are quite a tight-knit community. There are so many
innovative companies based in and around Derby that it will have
a knock-on benefit for so many people and the local economy. It
is really important, as the hon. Member for Strangford () said, that we have thriving private businesses
working with Government organisations. Working together, they can
achieve so much more. I thank the hon. Lady for that
intervention.
We continue to be the home of rail research, as has been said. In
1935, the LMS Scientific Research Laboratory was established in
Derby, which evolved into British Rail’s globally recognised
Railway Technical Centre that opened in 1964, and that tradition
of innovation continues today through special rail consultancies,
dynamic small and medium-sized enterprises, and the University of
Derby’s rail research and innovation centre, so there is a host
of reasons why the Minister must choose Derby.
Derby is home to the largest cluster of rail engineering
companies anywhere in Europe, with an international reputation
for rail excellence and innovation. There are more than 11,000
rail sector employees in Derbyshire, spanning operations, design,
manufacture, testing, safety, data and finance. Nowhere else in
the whole country can we design, test and manufacture a train all
on the same site. Not only that, but alongside the University of
Derby, our rail industry is leading the way on rail
decarbonisation—a huge part of our country’s efforts to achieve
net zero by 2050. In addition to these practical reasons why
Derby is the best choice, I would like to talk about the
longer-term impact of such a decision, and how it fits in with
the Government’s policy aims. First, for GBR, choosing Derby
brings the opportunity to engage more closely than ever with the
private sector. Last year, the Williams-Shapps plan for rail laid
out clearly the Government’s intention for GBR to work ever more
closely with the private sector, learning lessons and fostering
innovation.
As I have explained, there is no better place for interaction
with the private sector than Derbyshire, whether seeking to
collaborate with the largest rail companies in the land, or to
learn from and help to develop the most innovative engineering or
railway technology businesses. I know I need not repeat, for the
Minister has heard me make the point many times, that Derby is
home to the largest private sector rail industry cluster in
Europe, and the associated benefits that that would bring to our
public sector rail body.
The east midlands is the rail capital of the UK, with a global
reputation for excellence. I would like to quote the Government’s
rail sector deal:
“The east midlands is one of the largest rail clusters in
Europe…The success of UK rail will owe much to the successful
nurturing of these clusters.”
In the recently published levelling-up White Paper, the midlands
rail cluster is referred to as one of the largest in the world,
incorporating rail operations, research and innovation, digital
applications, manufacturing, technical services and finance.
Derby and Derbyshire, along with the whole of the east midlands,
are often left behind when it comes to public funding. Levelling
up is a phrase we have heard a lot recently, and it is really
important for Derby. We have heard Ministers and the Prime
Minister talking about it, but I would like to see it delivered
for Derby. We must be clear that levelling up is about taking
advantage of the talents and skills all around the country, not
just about giving a handout. That is why bringing GBR to Derby
really is levelling up. Placing the headquarters of Great British
Railways at the heart of the largest railway cluster in
Europe is an example of the Government taking advantage of the
amazing skillset and industry knowledge that we have in abundance
in the east midlands, which for so long have been overlooked.
The hon. Lady has been wide-reaching in the debate for Derby, but
we can all take advantage. The Government and the Minister have
given their commitment to levelling up across the whole United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The hon. Lady
referred to that, which I fully support. Within that levelling
up, there may be opportunities for businesses in Northern Ireland
to buy into the levelling up that Derby can take advantage of.
Does the hon. Lady feel that, when it comes to securing the
Union, which we can do as we are all committed to that, levelling
up is part of that process?
Mrs Latham
It is important that levelling up works for the whole country,
and that we genuinely level up. We need a lot of levelling up in
our region, and it is important for the Government to do what
they say.
Alongside that, we will have the opportunity for many apprentices
and to improve skills we already have. It is amazing that at
Alstom, which builds the trains, there are some fantastic female
apprentices. They are not straight from school; they have worked
outside and come in as apprentices. They are so passionate about
building trains and making it right. We have the workforce who
want to do the job. With Great British Railways
and all the other businesses in Derby, we could provide an
apprenticeship for everybody, because there are so many
opportunities with so many different businesses in the area. It
is incredibly important—
The hon. Lady is being very generous in giving way. People may
think it is slightly strange that someone from Nottingham is
supporting Derby, but it is important to take a view of the whole
of our region. Does she agree that if Great British
Railways were based in Derby, which of course is a key city
of the east midlands, its employees travelling there would see
that it is on a north-south line that is not fully electrified,
and that, at the moment, we have very poor east-west connections
to Birmingham and the west midlands? That might remind them every
single day of the importance of the levelling up that she is
talking about and the need for more investment in our transport
network.
Mrs Latham
That is absolutely right. The people who come to work
for Great British
Railways will see the benefits of what we do in Derby and
across the region, and that we need better links. We have links,
but we need better ones. It is no good looking at places such as
Birmingham, which has huge innovation and lots of other
businesses, and does not specialise in rail. Derby specialises in
rail, so locating Great British
Railways there would have a huge impact on the economy and
the area. That will add to the levelling up agenda, and
Nottingham will benefit from that. Cities need to play to their
strengths. Nottingham has different strengths, and Derby’s
greatest strength is the rail industry, as well as Rolls-Royce
aero-engines, the nuclear sector and Toyota. We have planes,
trains and automobiles in our area, and huge skills in
engineering, which are very important. Lots of people from
Nottingham work in Derby, and vice versa, because there are
opportunities for different industries to employ people.
I should not allow the impression to be given that there are not
fantastic rail engineering companies in Nottingham. LB Foster in
my constituency produces rail technologies, rail lubrication and
friction modification. It has worked on Crossrail, and produced
the original boards at St Pancras station. That technology is
spread across the midlands, although Derby is very much at the
heart of the industry.
Mrs Latham
Of course, that is true. The hon. Lady talks about local
companies being involved in St Pancras station, and the bricks
that were used there came from Butterley in Derbyshire, so we are
steeped in the rail industry—from the construction of buildings,
right through to the construction of trains and all the
engineering in between.
The Minister may not be aware that Derby was home to Britain’s
first railway staff training college, which opened in 1938. It is
now known as the Derby Conference Centre. That amazing, beautiful
building has been repurposed, but it was the heart of the railway
staff training college, which is very important to Derby.
Derby’s bid is supported not just by Derby’s MPs, or even
Derbyshire MPs. I am delighted by the support that colleagues
from across the region have given to our bid. They not only
recognise that Derby is the best location for the Great British
Railways headquarters, but know that it will benefit GBR,
Derby and the wider region in the long term. Some of those
colleagues are here today. I would have liked to have said many,
but the late night means that not many are here.
I remind the Minister of all the right hon. and hon. Members who
have already publicly pledged their support for the bid,
demonstrating their support for Derby and levelling up in the
east midlands. First, there are the right hon. Member for Derby
South () and my hon. Friends the
Members for Derby North () and for South Derbyshire.
Then there are all the other Derbyshire MPs from across parties.
Several are Ministers so cannot speak in this debate, but I know
that they have expressed their support to the Minister through
other channels. We have also received support from outside
Derbyshire. There have been key contributions from my right hon.
Friend the Member for Staffordshire Moorlands (), my hon. Friends the Members
for Burton () and for Bosworth (Dr
Evans), and the hon. Member for Nottingham South (), who is a former Chair of
the Transport Committee and was shadow Transport Secretary for a
long time, so understands the industry in the area. Also
supporting us are my hon. Friends the Members for Bassetlaw
(), for North West
Leicestershire () and for Mansfield ()—who is also leader of
Nottinghamshire County Council, which is important because it is
fully behind us—and my hon. Friend the Member for Ashfield
(). That is a formidable amount
of parliamentary support. It is not just Derby Members who want
it. The support stretches across four counties and at least six
upper-tier authorities representing the entire east midlands
region.
We have over 11,000 highly skilled people in rail-related
employment across the east midlands, with around 45,000 jobs
connected to the rail industry delivering train building and
refurbishment, infrastructure maintenance and renewals,
operations, digital technology, safety management, specialist
finance and other key roles.
The thing about Derby is that, compared with other cities in the
region, we do not have many civil servants based in our city or
indeed in the county. There is one very small rail industry body,
the Rail Accident Investigation Branch, but apart from that we
have very few. If we are talking seriously about levelling up, it
means bringing in Great British
Railways to take part in this wider rail industry in Derby,
Derbyshire and across to Nottinghamshire.
It is very important that GBR comes to Derby, because it would
cement the whole of the rail industry. It would benefit from
working with the private sector and learning about all the
different private businesses there, as well as our huge
innovation. A lot of apprentices go from Derby College into the
rail industry. The university also works very hard with the rail
industry. It is such a key place, and not just for history.
History is important, but it is about the future.
The first railway cottages in the world are in Derby. They were
saved by the Derbyshire Historic Building Trust many years ago.
They were going to be bulldozed to make way for a four-lane
motorway through the centre of Derby, which would have been
crazy. These beautiful railway cottages are genuinely the oldest
in the world. We have history, but we also have the innovation.
We have the will of the people in Derby. I hope that the public
vote will show that they really care about the railway industry
in Derby. Another part of the jigsaw is to bring Great British
Railways to Derby.
9.53am
(Derby South) (Lab)
It is a great pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr
Efford. My colleague from Derbyshire, the hon. Member for Mid
Derbyshire (Mrs Latham), has done a brilliantly comprehensive job
of making the case for Derby to be the home of the headquarters.
She has left very little for anyone else to say, but I will pick
up on one or two points.
The hon. Lady covered this ably in her remarks, as did my hon.
Friend the Member for Nottingham South (), but I particularly want
to stress that there is much to be said about the tremendous
history of rail in Derby. It is something in which the whole
community takes great pride. However, we are not just about the
history of rail. The present and the future of rail also have a
very strong base in Derby. That is the key point that I would
like to leave with the Minister. There are other places with much
past connection to rail, but I do not think there is anywhere
else that has the unique combination of history, strength,
community understanding, skills and families who have all lived
with rail right across the city and its environs.
As the hon. Member for Mid Derbyshire said, Alstom has the only
facility in the United Kingdom—it has been the only facility for
some time—that goes all the way from design to production of new
rolling stock. As the Minister will know, Alstom, in partnership
with Hitachi, is providing the rolling stock for Crossrail and
for HS2, so Derby is both looking to the future and to delivering
now.
The word “partnership” is very familiar to Derby, as it is in
partnership with other places across the country—Hitachi is also
in partnership in the north-east—and within our city and
community. There is tremendous community spirit and co-operation
in the whole business sector in the locality of Derby.
As the hon. Lady has pointed out, we are very much a transport
hub; we are not just a rail hub. Toyota is based in the
constituency of the hon. Member for South Derbyshire (Mrs
Wheeler), Rolls-Royce is based in my constituency, and a
collection of people are working constructively together all the
time. The hon. Member for Mid Derbyshire touched on the rail
forum, which now has some 300 companies from across the UK. I am
sure that the Minister will find herself invited, if she has not
been already, to various functions in the rail industry, and she
will find that a concentration of people are in or have come to
Derby and that the spirit of partnership that we all need is very
much present.
Reference has been made to the importance and strength of our
geographical location, which makes it is easy to travel to places
such as Cardiff. As well as the north-south connections, and
although there is weakness in the east-west links to Birmingham
and so on, people rarely highlight the impressive fact that
CrossCountry trains, which run between Inverness and Penzance,
run through Derby. In the near future, the Joint Committee on the
National Security Strategy will visit the Met Office in Exeter,
and I shall come home on the train, from Exeter straight through
to Derby. Geographically, therefore, Derby is an extraordinarily
convenient place. It deals with both the present and the future
of rail.
As has already been highlighted, there is a great concentration
of skills, knowledge and experience in the community, among the
existing and the potential workforce, but more than that there is
opportunity. There is training and a rail-specific educational
engagement programme, run in partnership with Rail Forum
Midlands. Those developments can all be of benefit
to Great British
Railways
On the issue of whether enough, or any, civil servants are being
brought out from the centre into our locality, it is a constant
source of astonishment to me that Derby is not recognised more
readily as an attractive environment for those who would come to
work in the headquarters. We have an extremely competitive
housing market—that may not please everybody, but it is certainly
true—particularly for people who might be coming out from the
centre. We have excellent facilities and, of course, we have on
our doorstep one of the most beautiful national parks in
England.
Derby has a great deal to offer and has an immensely strong sense
of community. It is a community that looks outwards and is
welcoming. I have experienced—perhaps the Minister has,
too—places with a strong sense of community, but it is directed
inward: “If you haven’t lived here for 60 years, you don’t really
belong.” Derby is not like that. Even if people have been there
only five minutes, we will treat them as if they and their
grandparents before them had been there all their life. It is a
very warm and welcoming place, where such new employment would be
welcomed and could thrive.
As has been touched on, there is the whole question of research
and development for the future. The plethora of companies that
operate in and around Derby makes it a home of real innovation.
For my part, I have a great attachment to the manufacturing
industry and, within that, a particular attachment to innovation.
We do not devote nearly enough attention to innovation, but it is
where Britain has a great track record. It has been said that,
under successive Governments, far too often we innovate but do
not follow through—other people exploit our innovation. We
certainly have the innovation and we should, I hope, focus more
on how it can be exploited in future.
The hon. Member for Mid Derbyshire also commented on support from
across the local business community—not just rail-related
business, but the whole business community in Derby and
Derbyshire, which works well together on all kinds of projects.
As I recall, we have support from Tarmac, which has quarries up
in Derbyshire, serviced by rail, where it produces aggregate
needed for the housing programme. Its efficient operation is
dependent on the facility of rail. Right across the piece,
therefore, we see an opportunity. The support should be there to
develop rail to the maximum advantage, with a real interest in
and pressure for research and future development.
No one understands Derby and its history as well as my right hon.
Friend. Does she agree that one thing about Derby and the east
midlands is the importance of freight? Derby brings not only that
knowledge of rail infrastructure and rolling stock, but
interaction with freight customers, which is important because
they can sometimes be forgotten in the focus on passengers.
Freight is important in our region, historically because of
quarrying, and increasingly with the rail freight hub and
proximity to the East Midlands airport, which is a huge freight
airport. That brings a thinking that is unique in the
country.
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. It is slightly unfortunate
that there is no better link at present, because, as she says,
East Midlands airport is the freight airport, in particular for
freight from the United States. It is very much an airport linked
to freight. That gives us an opportunity to develop strengths and
partnerships that might not have been fully developed so far.
Again, that is an opportunity to innovate and develop support for
the future.
I do not want to take too long or to simply repeat everything
said by the hon. Member for Mid Derbyshire. However, I hope that
we will convince the Minister and those organising the programme
for Great British
Railways that nowhere in the UK is better suited to house
its headquarters—to everyone’s advantage—than the city of Derby.
The massive support that the city and its environment can provide
for the establishment of the headquarters will very much play in
our favour.
10.04am
(Slough) (Lab)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship once again, Mr
Efford.
I congratulate the hon. Member for Mid Derbyshire (Mrs Latham) on
securing this important debate and on the passion she shows for
Derby and its proud industrial and railway heritage. In fact, I
congratulate all Derbyshire Members on working cross-party for
their area to win this prestigious prize.
We heard, eloquently, from my right hon. Friend the Member for
Derby South (). I know that many other
Derbyshire MPs could not be here because of the late sitting last
night, but they too have shown their support. Derby is proud and
privileged to have the support of the former Chair of the
Transport Committee and former shadow Transport Secretary, my
hon. Friend the Member for Nottingham South (). Amazingly, it has also
managed to get support from Northern Ireland, with the hon.
Member for Strangford (). The Minister, and everybody at the Department for
Transport, will be left in no doubt that Derby has a very strong
bid.
The hon. Member for Mid Derbyshire and my right hon. Friend the
Member for Derby South have rightly placed Derby at the centre of
the history of the railway, as a place where trains have been
built since 1839. It is a centre of British engineering
excellence to this day. I was privileged to visit Derby recently
to see some of that engineering excellence, meet some of the
workers and executives and see their impressive work, thanks to
Rail Forum Midlands and its amazing chief executive officer
Elaine. I even got to drive a train, which was a first for me.
Subsequently I had the pleasure of having a meeting with
Councillor Baggy Shanker and the Derby group of Labour
councillors, where I heard about their strong support for the
bid, with intricate details provided by the senior council
officers. As we have heard, it is a bid that is supported by
Alstom, which I also visited, the local enterprise partnership
and the East Midlands chamber of commerce, among many others.
I am left in no doubt that Derby has made the strongest possible
case and put together a very strong bid. However, as the shadow
Rail Minister, I must stop short of making my own preferences
known or endorsing one particular bid—even a bid as strong as
Derby’s. I would get lynched by other Members who have also been
on my case. It is a very crowded and impressive field. I think
this is the sixth debate secured by a Member advocating their
town or city. I understand that 42 places had submitted a bid by
the time the deadline passed. There are so many places that speak
to the rich heritage of the railway across the country, including
Doncaster, York, Crewe, Darlington, Edinburgh, Swindon, and
Wakefield, as well as many other wonderful places with a strong
claim. However, despite its amazing connectivity, for some reason
Slough, incredible as it is, did not quite make the cut. I
noticed that Carnforth made the list; it will forever be
associated with Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson and their “Brief
Encounter”.
The quality of the bids tells us that there is a lot of love for
rail, and a vibrant railway manufacturing sector in our country
that is still going, despite every challenge and obstacle. There
is an enthusiasm to design, manufacture, build, create and
produce. Embedded deep in our history are Stephenson, Trevithick,
James Watt and the legendary Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who built
the famous Great Western Railway that runs through my Slough
constituency. However, we need to look to the future, too. I
believe that Great Britain can have a great industrial future as
well as a proud past, but it requires vision, investment and
political will.
The current Government’s industrial strategy is inadequate to the
task and is still ideologically enamoured with free markets
rather than long-term planning. If recent events—whether that is
Brexit, the pandemic, energy prices, war in Europe or the climate
crisis—prove anything, it is the need for Government to work in
partnership with industry to provide investment where markets
fail, as well as strategic direction, planning and leadership. On
the climate emergency in particular, we need to harness our
engineering genius to meet the fierce urgency of tackling global
warming with carbon capture, renewable energy and green
manufacturing.
The railway is central to this green new deal. We need high-speed
links across the UK, including the east midlands to Leeds leg,
which the Government have unfortunately scrapped—so much for
levelling up—and electrification, which should be rolled out
further and faster. We need hydrogen-power trains, such as those
pioneered and built in Derby. As has been eloquently pointed by
hon. Members today, with more railway freight, we will have fewer
lorries on our roads. More passengers on trains across the
timetable will reflect the new changed realities of the world of
work.
I welcome recent announcements of cheaper fares for the next few
weeks, which will hopefully remind people that trains can be a
viable means of transport. However, I cannot shake the view that
it is simply a gimmick. Would it not be better if rail fares were
affordable all the time, as they are in many of our European
neighbours? As the Labour Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy
, pointed out, a return train ticket
from Manchester to London bought on a Monday morning is £369.
That is more than a return flight, booked in advance, to India,
Jamaica or Brazil. That is absolutely ludicrous. Could the
Minister update us on the long-promised plans for reforms of
ticketing and ticket prices, and whether Government plans will
truly make rail travel a viable option for people on middle and
low incomes?
That brings me to my central point. We are discussing the
headquarters for the new Great British Railways
as established by the Williams-Shapps rail review, but that body
is merely the guiding mind of a railway system still dominated by
private sector companies running those franchises. The new
passenger service contracts will replace the emergency agreements
agreed during the pandemic, but those contracts are with private
companies and their shareholders and investors. As long as the
profit motive is central to running the railways, there will be
pressure for higher fares and more profits derived from the
pockets of the long-despairing travelling public. Could the
Minister offer her assessment of how much cash those franchise
deals will cost the public purse for the first five years of the
plan?
The great missed opportunity from the shock to the system
provoked by the pandemic was the nationalisation of the railway
in its totality, which would end the franchises and put people
before profits. By bringing our railways back into public
ownership, we could have a democratically driven railway that was
owned by the people and accountable to Government—a people’s
railway for all the people. That model, which is commonplace
across the world, would guarantee recovery of our UK
railways.
We need to keep down fares, speed up investment, boost green
manufacturing and secure our railways for another 200 years. I
wish the great manufacturing centre of Derby all the very best
and hope to have the pleasure of visiting again very soon. I once
again congratulate the hon. Member for Mid Derbyshire and wish
the other shortlisted towns and cities the best of luck, too. I
hope we have a decision as soon as possible from the Department,
before we have further such debates, which will no doubt be
called by right hon. and hon. Members for their towns and cities.
Most of all, I wish for a clean, green, safe, reliable and
affordable railway that is accessible for all.
10.13am
The Minister of State, Department for Transport ()
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship this morning,
Mr Efford. Before I respond to the points made by the hon.
Members, I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Mid
Derbyshire (Mrs Latham) for securing the debate. She has made
clear her passion for the city of Derby and the area she
represents and she has highlighted some of the things that
Members can do as Back Benchers. I hope that the Marriage and
Civil Partnership (Minimum Age) Bill, her private Member’s Bill,
makes progress—fingers crossed it will receive Royal Assent. I
know she has been working on it for a long time. As a Back
Bencher, I was successful in taking two private Member’s Bills
through this place and that is real proof that we can deliver
things that we have a passion or enthusiasm for or an interest
in.
Just last month, I was in the Chamber debating the merits of
Crewe as a potential Great British
Railways headquarters location. This is the fifth debate on
the subject—the hon. Member for Slough (Mr Dhesi) and I may
differ on whether it is the fifth or sixth overall. Others have
been for Darlington, York, and Carnforth, and, yesterday, we were
in Westminster Hall—so this is a little bit of déjà vu—for a
broader debate on the merits of the York bid.
It has been absolutely heartening to see hon. Members from up and
down the country engaging in the important conversation about the
future of our railways and doing outstanding work to support the
bids for their towns and cities. As Rail Minister, the other real
advantage of the debates has been the opportunity not for just
me, but, more broadly, for all of us to learn so much more about
the history and heritage of our railways, and about our rail
industry—about the manufacturing, the communities, and the
families that are all part of our railways.
At the risk of repeating myself, as I said this yesterday,
railways are close to my heart. Both of my paternal
great-grandfathers worked on the railways, one in Wensleydale and
the other in County Durham. My hon. Friend the Member for Mid
Derbyshire mentioned railway cottages and I discovered that my
dad was actually born in one. There is perhaps a sense that I
have some railway heritage, or railway stock, myself, and I
absolutely understand the importance of the industry and the
amazing rail heritage of this country.
As my hon. Friend the Member for Mid Derbyshire set out, Derby
has a very proud rail heritage. When the Midland Railway was
formed in 1844, Derby became its headquarters, and Derby rail
station is a major railway hub. As we have heard today, Derby
became an important manufacturing centre for the railways through
the famous Derby Works and the Derby Carriage and Wagon
Works.
The first mainline diesel locomotives built in Great Britain were
built at the Derby Works, which closed as a locomotive works in
1990. The Derby Carriage and Wagon Works continues to operate as
a railway rolling stock factory today, run by Alstom. From the
earliest days of the railways to the modern day, Derby has
played, and will continue to play, an important role. My mailbox
shows great evidence of the fact that many other towns and cities
across the country have, of course, played an important part in
our proud railway heritage, which hon. Members are proud to
represent. The response to the competition has been positive and
I am pleased that by the time it closed on 16 March we had
received an outstanding 42 applications from up and down the
country.
Hon. Members will be well aware that the Williams-Shapps plan for
rail, published in May 2021, set out the path towards a truly
passenger-focused railway underpinned by new contracts that
prioritise punctual and reliable services, the rapid delivery of
a ticketing revolution with new flexible and convenient tickets
and long-term proposals to build a modern, greener and accessible
network. Central to the Williams-Shapps plan for rail is the
establishment of a new rail body—Great British Railways—that will
provide a single familiar brand and strong, unified leadership
across the rail network.
Great British Railways will be responsible for delivering better
value and flexible fares and the punctual, reliable services
passengers deserve. By bringing ownership of the infrastructure,
fares, timetables and planning of the network under one roof, it
will bring today’s fragmented railways under a single point of
operational accountability, ensuring that the focus is delivering
for passengers and freight customers. Great British
Railways will be a new organisation with a commercial
mindset and strong customer focus. It will have a different
culture to the current infrastructure owner, Network Rail, and
very different incentives from the beginning.
GBR will have responsibility for the whole railway system, and a
modest national headquarters as well as several regional
divisions. The national headquarters will be based outside London
and will bring the railway closer to the people and communities
it serves, ensuring that skilled jobs and economic benefits are
focused beyond the capital in line with the Government’s
commitment to levelling up. Hon. Members have spoken this morning
about the importance of the levelling-up agenda.
The competition for the headquarters was launched by the
Secretary of State on 5 February 2022 and closed for applications
on 16 March 2022. The GBR transition team is now evaluating the
42 submissions for the national headquarters, which we received
from towns and cities across Great Britain, against a set of six
criteria. The criteria are: alignment to levelling-up objectives;
connected and easy to get to; opportunities for Great British Railways
rail heritage and links to the network; value for money; and
public support. The GBR transition team will recommend a
shortlist of the most suitable locations that will go forward to
a consultative public vote. Ministers will make a final decision
on the location based on all information gathered. As I mentioned
before, I am incredibly pleased by the number of high-quality
bids we have received. I am sure that, wherever we choose, the
future headquarters will go to somewhere truly deserving.
Alongside a new national headquarters, GBR will have regional
divisions that are responsible and accountable for the railway in
local areas, ensuring that decisions about the railway are
brought closer to the passengers and communities they serve. GBR
regional divisions will be organised in line with the regions
established in Network Rail’s putting passengers first programme,
which reflects how passengers and freight move across the network
today. Cities and regions in England will have greater influence
over local ticketing, services and stations through new
partnerships between regional divisions and local and regional
government. Initial conversations are starting with local
stakeholders on how those partnerships can best work
together.
I was pleased to hear the contributions from the hon. Members for
Nottingham South () and for Strangford
() and the right hon. Member for Derby South (). I was also pleased to
see the Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office, my hon. Friend
the Member for South Derbyshire (Mrs Wheeler) in the debate. One
of the challenges of being a Minister is being unable to speak in
such debates, but it was good to see her.
We have heard contributions about innovation. As a Minister, I
have learned a lot recently about innovation in the sector,
including the First of a Kind scheme. The importance of freight
has also been highlighted; it is really important in building a
cleaner, greener future for our country. The hon. Member for
Strangford spoke, quite rightly, about levelling up. The right
hon. Member for Derby South highlighted the importance of our
rail heritage and its future. That goes for the country as a
whole. The focus of this morning’s debate was Derby, but we
should be proud of our heritage and look positively to our
future.
There were contributions about the importance of partnerships,
the rail community, rolling stock and ticketing. We recently
launched our Great British rail ticket sale. As of yesterday, we
have sold more than 700,000 tickets—an excellent example of how
the Government are helping people to access rail and with the
cost of living.
The reforms proposed under the Williams-Shapps plan for rail will
transform the railways for the better, strengthening and securing
them for the next generation. The reforms will make the sector
more accountable to taxpayers and the Government and will provide
a bold new offer to passengers and freight customers of punctual
and reliable services, simpler tickets and a modern, green and
innovative railway that meets the needs of the nation.
Although transformation on such a scale cannot happen overnight,
the Government and the sector are committed to ensuring the
benefits for passengers and freight customers are brought forward
as quickly as possible. We have already sold over 200,000 of our
new national flexi-season tickets, which offer commuters savings
as they return to the railways. As I have explained, to help
passengers facing the rising cost of living we also recently
launched the Great British rail sale, which offers up to 50% off
more than a million tickets on journeys across Britain. And the
transition from the emergency recovery measures agreements to the
new national rail contract is under way, providing more flexible
contracts that incentivise operators to deliver for
passengers.
GBR will work alongside the local communities that it will serve.
Integrated local teams within GBR’s regional divisions will push
forward design and delivery for their partners supported by new
incentives that encourage innovation, partnership and
collaboration. GBR will be designed and have the structure to
become yet another example of this Government’s historic
commitment to levelling up the regions across the nation. Both
the Government and the GBR transition team welcome the interest
and advocacy from different cities and towns, and also welcome
the participation in the competition for GBR’s headquarters so
that together we can really deliver the change that is
required.
To conclude, we look forward to creating this new vision for
Britain’s railways, in collaboration with the sector and local
communities, and deciding on GBR’s HQ is just one of many steps
we are taking to achieve that.
10.26am
Mrs Latham
Today’s debate was about quality rather than quantity, probably
because of the late night in the main Chamber last night.
The Minister will be aware that we have worked cross-party to
provide the information for the bid. In Derby, we work
cross-party a lot for the benefit of the city and the surrounding
area. It is important on such matters, which are not party
political, and we do it for the benefit of all our citizens.
The Minister will not be aware that some years ago, when
Bombardier—now called Alstom—was threatened with closure, 10,000
people marched from Derby to show the strength of feeling in the
city. That is how much rail is embedded in Derby. As the right
hon. Member for Derby South () said, different
generations of families in Derby have worked in the rail
industry, so it is in the city’s DNA and in people’s veins in
Derby to work in this absolutely amazing industry on all fronts;
every single front is covered.
I do not want to detain Members, but when the hon. Lady mentioned
that march it struck me that—this is quite true—there are not
many occasions when I have found myself marching, in a crowd of
people all chanting to bring pressure to bear for the right
outcome, alongside the Conservative leader of the council and
Conservative MPs.
Mrs Latham
That absolutely shows our cross-party work in Derby when it
matters to the city, and this question really matters to Derby.
People will see the passion in Derby when we get through to the
second round of the competition, and when my hon. Friend the
Minister comes to visit the different bidding cities she will
come across the passion for the rail industry in Derby. That is
why it is another piece of the jigsaw for the city to
embed Great British
Railways in Derby, because the people working in that
industry and that HQ will learn from those people in the city who
are steeped in the history of the railways. Having said that, I
know that this is about the future, not history. We have the
history, as the Minister knows, but this is a question of the
future. She talked about the six pillars that the bidding cities
will be judged on and we have every one of them. Indeed, that
could be our bid.
I am sure that the Minister will look forward to coming to Derby
in the second round of the competition so that she can see for
herself how passionate people in Derby are about getting GBR to
the city. It is also about levelling up and Derby ticks every box
when it comes to that.
I thank the Minister for her response to the debate.
Question put and agreed to.
Resolved,
That this House has considered Derby’s bid to host the
headquarters of Great British Railways
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