Queen’s Speech

My Lords, I, too, apologise for not being here at the start of the debate today. I wish to address my remarks to the section of the Queen’s Speech which states: "““My Government will bring forward measures to protect the environment for future generations””." In that regard, I welcome the Marine and Coastal Access Bill and look forward to contributing to the debate on it. On protecting the environment, noble Lords will be aware that the Government commitment is to reducing CO2 emissions by 80 per cent by 2050. It is a long way away but 80 per cent is a challenging figure and I congratulate the Government on producing it. Some noble Lords will no doubt be around to see it; I am sure I will not be, but there we are. Transport is a major source of CO2 pollution and the Government’s response to the Eddington and Stern reports, which are the bedrock of much of their transport policy at the moment, states: "““The Eddington study highlighted transport’s pivotal role in supporting the UK’s future economic success. It recommended a number of reforms to the planning, funding and delivery of transport interventions to maximise sustainable returns from investment, as well as recognising the need to improve the environmental performance of transport””." I wish to review how the Government are implementing the intentions behind these promises. Other noble Lords have referred to the problem of the growth in air traffic and it is worth reminding ourselves that, on current forecasts, the UK air passenger numbers will rise from 180 million to 475 million—much more than a doubling—by 2030, which is only 20 years away. This will trigger great increases in aviation fuel emissions, as will happen if permission is given for the third runway at Heathrow. The Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research recently warned that this kind of expansion will see aviation fuel account for almost all of the nation’s permitted carbon outputs by 2050. No one else will be allowed these emissions; there will have to be a balance. It is an extraordinary idea that only the aviation industry will then be allowed to do it. I do not believe that the case has been made for the third runway or for any other kind of air transport expansion. It is also the case that if the third runway goes ahead, the pollution on the ground around Heathrow will exceed EU limits. That deals with air; what about roads? The Government policy in the gracious Speech of protecting the environment for future generations will not have been helped by the announcement made by my right honourable friend Geoff Hoon, the Secretary of State for Transport, on 25 November as part of his autumn Statement. He quite rightly wishes to contribute to job creation and said that in the transport field he is going ahead with £1 billion of new road construction, particularly connecting airports and ports. I immediately thought, ““What is he doing for rail?””, which is much more environmentally friendly and has lower CO2 emissions. What the Government were doing for rail comprised 200 new passenger coaches which were already in the programme but were being brought forward, and a widening of the North London line after the Olympics had finished, which is four years away. Why should we build roads to increase emissions when railway building could reduce them? I have been inquiring into that. Some people have said, ““Well, all the road schemes are already prepared and waiting for someone to sign the cheque. The Highways Agency and local authorities have a big bank of schemes which can be used as soon as the money comes off a tree or something, like it did in November””. I have also been inquiring why there were no rail schemes in that situation. It is difficult, as is usual with the railways, to know whose fault it is, if anyone’s. The Rail Regulator rejected a number of schemes in November as either not being quite ready or not having value for money, but I suspect some of the roads come under that category as well. They include the Kemble-Stroud doubling, the East Midland resignalling, some electrification and of course Skipton-Colne, which the noble Lord, Lord Greaves, spoke about earlier. I am a member of that organisation too. There are probably many other schemes that could have been given the go-ahead if they had been prepared—or were they prepared? I do not know the answer, but it is pretty extraordinary that between the Department for Transport, Network Rail and, sometimes, promoters, there is not a bank of schemes that are ready to go when the money becomes available from either the private sector or the Government, or from allowing Network Rail to spend some more money. I invite noble Lords to compare that situation with France where, I suggest, the economic climate is much the same. President Sarkozy has recently announced the construction of four high-speed lines concurrently. He is going to go through what they call ““fast-track planning””. In France planning is pretty fast anyway, so I do not know what fast-track planning will be; it might be rather quicker than even the lovely Planning Bill, which my noble friend Lady Andrews piloted so successfully in the previous Session, will allow. Should we not be comparing the reaction of France—build four TGV lines quickly to create jobs, improve accessibility and generally improve the economy—with the reaction here, when we are spending £1 billion on motorways, airport links and port links but nothing on railways? I hope my noble friend can give me some comfort that I have got it wrong and that there is a big stash of rail projects that I do not know about, ready to be announced after Christmas. I fear, though, that he may not be able to, and I hope that he can reflect on how we can get this done better next time.