Transport Committee Chair Iain Stewart comments on HS2 and PM’s announcements

Following the Prime Minister’s party conference speech today, Iain Stewart MP, Chair of the Transport Committee, said: 

“There will be costs and lost opportunities in not proceeding with HS2 in full. There will also be significant benefits delivered by the new rail and road projects that the PM has announced. 

“The Transport Select Committee will scrutinise in detail these announcements and, crucially, look at how the Government will assess their deliverability. 

“This work will include the impacts that these announcements might have on the wider road and bus networks, and an examination of how they fit into the Government’s strategic policy objectives for the country’s transport services, which is at the heart of another of our current inquiries. 

“An important role of a cross-party select committee is to take the time to dispassionately dig into and appraise the detail of changes of policy, and the strong views that there will be. I shall be discussing with my colleagues on the Committee our programme for doing this.”

The Committee has made recommendations about DfT’s record of delivering major road infrastructure projects in its recent report on Strategic Road Investments.

The Committee is currently holding an inquiry into the Government’s strategic transport objectives and how it plans investment.