Richard Fuller
MP for North Bedfordshire · Conservative · United Kingdom
“I thank the Minister for his clear exposition of the Bill’s clauses. He emphasised the importance of the 2026 royal trustees’ review. The interesting thing is that it is their forecast of their needs over the next five years on which a lot of the mechanism rests.”
“I thank the Minister’s colleague the Exchequer Secretary, because on the 11th of this month, he wrote in reply to questions from my colleague, answering questions about some of the points that we may get into in detailed consideration of the Bill.”
“In his letter, the Minister said: “The Household forecasts that this income will increase by around 25% over the review period, based on recent performance, detailed modelling and increased visitor capacity… If income were lower than forecast, there is no expectation that the Grant would increase above £99.9 million per year.” Can the Min…”
“I thank the Minister for his speech. This follows a recent debate on ways and means that his colleague the Exchequer Secretary had with my hon. Friend the Member for North West Norfolk (James Wild). I do not wish to repeat the points that were made on that occasion. His Majesty’s official Opposition are supportive of this Bill.”
“Friend the Member for North West Norfolk (James Wild) asked about powers to adjust the grant between reviews and the circumstances in which they might be used, the answer from the Treasury was: “These powers are intended for exceptional circumstances and are not expected to be used routinely”, which, of course, is the definition of except…”
“Will the Minister explain how those financial assessments were made? What discount rate was used to work out what the estimates might be? I am not questioning it, and I do not need a precise figure; what I am looking for is some comfort from the Minister that he feels that those financial projections, that model and the work of the truste…”
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“Member for Cambridge and Cambridgeshire have a significant number of areas with greenbelt protection, but we in Bedfordshire love our countryside too. It may not be classified as an area of outstanding natural beauty, and it may not be protected by the greenbelt, but we love it and want to protect it. We do not want a railway and more housing driven through it. The East West Rail announcement has sadly taken us backwards. It has left too many unresolved issues, and too much controversy and uncertainty. Much more work needs to be done before it gets any support from me. Question put and agreed to. Resolved, That this House has considered the Bedford to Cambridge section of East West Rail.”
“I do not think that this is the right way to unlock growth, but I understand that my view differs from that of the Government. It was disappointing that there was no more pressure from the Minister on East West Rail to be open on the business case. As many Members have said, there is no clarity about the business case, and people having the opportunity to discuss it openly would help with greater transparency, which is why I issued my challenge to the chief executive: I am happy to debate the matter with her in my constituency. The Minister also talked kindly about the impact of housing growth, and I am grateful for that. He talked about his own constituency, which has a large number of areas of outstanding natural beauty. I know that the constituency of the hon.”
“Well, at the moment this rail project has a benefit-cost ratio of, basically, 26p in the pound to 52p in the pound. I wonder whether that is Labour’s assumption of good value for money to the taxpayer. Is that the benchmark? If we can anticipate Labour spending that £28 billion a year, that would mean a £20 billion to £50 billion a year loss to the taxpayer. I really think that Labour needs to sharpen its pencils on what is a beneficial return and not give such an easy pass if the benefit-cost ratio of East West Rail is as low as that. I am grateful to the Minister for his responses, and for his willingness to walk the entire route. I am happy to say that we need him only for part of it, and we will find a date. He said that the announcement is a milestone; I fear it is a millstone.”
“It is always easy for people to support something when they do not have to pay for it. Would those 50 businesses write the same letter if we said we were going to tax their profits until we made up the shortfall for the taxpayer of £1.5 billion to £3 billion? I wonder whether their support would be quite so evocative if they had to pay for it. In the good old days, people used to say, “I’m going to stand on my own two feet. I’m going to pay for things myself.” Perhaps the Minister should look at ways in which the shortfall could be reduced for the taxpayer by charging the businesses that say they are going to benefit. I would be interested in his thoughts about that one. On the updated business case, again, the shadow Minister talked eloquently about the support he had for rail projects.”
“Friend the Member for South Cambridgeshire emphasised how in this country we are not very good at managing these issues for people when it comes to quantity, the process of reassessing the value of properties or timeliness. It was kind of the CEO of East West Rail to say today that she will see whether things can be done. If the Minister took her up on that, that might help those people. As the hon. Member for Bedford said, there is new additional uncertainty about the new station at the hospital and what that will mean for his constituents and the town of Bedford. The shadow Minister made some strong points. I shall not pick up on all of them. I always love it when I hear someone say they really like something. The shadow Minister said 50 businesses had written to the Government to say that they supported East West Rail.”
“Friend the Member for South Cambridgeshire (Anthony Browne) made the crucial point that inadequate attention has been paid to the water supply in the East Anglia region. This is not a marginal concern, but a substantial one. Like my hon. Friend, I have spoken to the experts in this area about their plans going out 20 or 30 years. Even with all the effort they can make with a new reservoir and with desalination plants, we will run out of water in the eastern region unless there are other additional plans. We have to bear that in mind before the potential for more housing can be taken any further. The hon. Member for Bedford (Mohammad Yasin) spoke with great passion about members in his constituency, which I know well, who have been given a notification, and about the need for compensation and support. My hon.”
“We are lucky to have academic, technical and innovative skills in and around Cambridge, in the science parks and the university. That hub of activity has a national benefit for all of us. I completely agree with him, including about the importance of being able to provide accommodation for people and support for that potential to be fulfilled. East West Rail is not the smartest way to do that. There are greener, better alternatives that use public money better to achieve that. If we could engage on that rather than blindly going down this route of “We had already thought of it 10 years ago so we have to keep thinking about it”, we would get a better answer for Cambridge. My hon.”
“I will try not to detain you for 10 minutes, Sir Mark, but we will see. I thank the Minister, the shadow Minister—the hon. Member for Slough (Mr Dhesi) —and all hon. Members who have spoken, plus the hon. Member for Bath (Wera Hobhouse), who is no longer in her place but who made useful interventions. We certainly had a diversity of views, but one thing that united all those speaking from the Back Benches was that diesel is a non-starter on this railway. Until the Minister and the Government resolve that issue, they are pushing a plan that will further erode public support. The hon. Member for Cambridge (Daniel Zeichner) made the crucial point that the goal of this investment is to try to build on the strength of Cambridge.”