Among the numerous issues I have raised in this House over the past three and a bit years, there is one that stands out both for its magnitude and spread across my constituency, as well as for the number of times I have raised it: the impact of major infrastructure projects on rural areas such as mine in Buckinghamshire.
Before I come to my substantive comments, let me say that there is nothing that takes away my firmly held belief that the Government need to see sense and end the colossal waste of money, the unwanted project, ruinous on the taxpayer and destructive of communities, that is High Speed 2. However, I will focus my comments particularly on the impact that such big infrastructure projects have on the people who have to live around their construction.
Those projects are simply not designed with those impacted in mind. No community support scheme can possibly account for the upending of rural life that they bring for residents and businesses alike—and for their local elected representatives. Nothing can prepare those communities for the misery they face on a daily basis.
A substantial element of that misery comes from the appalling state in which these projects have left the rural roads network. I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Minister for coming to see that for himself the other week. Those roads are a lifeline for my constituents to reach work, schools and hospital appointments, yet in places they remain impassable and present a clear risk to all road users.
It is no coincidence that the worst roads are concentrated around the construction compounds, being pounded every day by heavy goods vehicles in volumes and with loads that they were not built to handle. Yet the meagre funds that these projects have been willing to contribute towards their repair, after much wrangling by me, my hon. Friend and neighbour the Member for Aylesbury (Rob Butler) and Buckinghamshire Council, do not even scratch the surface. I am grateful that East West Rail recently agreed to fund the resurfacing of a number of roads in north Buckinghamshire, but there is a huge way to go yet.
That is far from being a good neighbour. Good neighbours clear up after themselves. It is clear that the damage we are seeing could only have come from the constant churn of HGVs in and out of these compounds—compounds that have swallowed up huge amounts of arable land, depriving countless farmers of their livelihoods. To make matters worse, the project’s contractors and management have treated them with contempt, from flooded fields to unpaid bills, unannounced visits and unbelievably long waits for answers to basic questions such as, “When will you come to clear up the litter that your contractors have strewn across my driveway?”
Indeed, the approach taken by these projects to land acquisition has been poor at best, inadequate at worst. In any case, the land taken from hard-working farmers is land unlikely to be returned in its previous productive state. No one at the project can say when, or how much of, the land taken from farmers under supposedly temporary possession—we all remember income tax was meant to be temporary—will be given back. To any farmer, this signals the end of the road. How can anyone possibly run a business having lost their main asset without knowing when it will be returned?
Mr Butler has been given permission by the Member in charge of the Adjournment debate and the Minister responding to make a short contribution, and I have been informed.
I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Buckingham (Greg Smith) and the Minister for giving me permission to contribute. This is a very important debate on a topic that affects many of my constituents, too. For the sake of brevity, I shall focus my remarks on the biggest problem that Aylesbury faces from transport infrastructure construction. It will come as a surprise to nobody that that is HS2.
Almost every community along the 5.9 miles of railway that are now being built through my constituency, from Aylesbury to Wendover, Stoke Mandeville to Dunsmore, is affected by traffic delays and long diversions, noise and dust—all of it caused by that construction project. For any area, this would be challenging and deeply frustrating for residents and local businesses, but Aylesbury is a town that has long needed major investment in its road network to alleviate the existing congestion caused by housing development—the building of literally thousands of new houses. The addition of the largest infrastructure project in Europe now means that we have almost constant gridlock and abject misery.
Since the construction of HS2 began in earnest, my constituents have been contacting me continually to voice their frustration at the impact of traffic on their daily lives. Local businesses cite how it is reducing footfall in the town centre. One hairdresser told me, for example, how appointments are frequently being missed at her salon as so many people are stuck in jams caused by HS2. Missed appointments mean lost revenue.
The problems of constructing the railway are particularly well known to residents living on the western side of Aylesbury. My constituents in Fairford Leys often describe trying to exit their estate as a nightmare, due to the traffic management systems in place on the A418 Oxford Road. Indeed, not long after I was elected to this place, I was furious to discover that HS2 Ltd closed part of that road and caused utter gridlock, then telling me, “Oh, we miscalculated the traffic flows.” Miscalculation might be an easy word to HS2 Ltd; it is considerably more disruptive to the people of Fairford Leys.
I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Buckingham (Greg Smith) for securing this debate, and I welcome the contribution from my hon. Friend the Member for Aylesbury (Rob Butler). There are three reasons for my hon. Friend the Member for Buckingham to be cheerful: his Bill passed through the House earlier; he has secured this debate; and it is his birthday—a very happy birthday to him.
First, I would like to recognise the change and upheaval that major infrastructure transport projects such as HS2 and East West Rail bring to the communities they pass through. I say that as someone who grew up in Buckingham. Indeed, I will be in the fine village of Padbury in Buckingham for my niece’s wedding this weekend. My hon. Friend the Member for Buckingham will recall the visit that he and I embarked on around the Claydons and Padbury in January, so that I could see for myself the impact of the construction project on his constituents; I am grateful for his time.
HS2 construction is approaching its peak, and so, regrettably, is the level of disruption, with road closures, lorry movements and both visible and audible signs of construction in affected areas; I recognise that. While some unwelcome impacts on local people are unavoidable in major projects, I am determined as the Minister responsible for rail to ensure that HS2 Ltd and the East West Rail Alliance do their utmost to ensure that impacts are reduced as much as is reasonably possible. I expect the communities affected by the construction of these railways to be at the heart of their delivery plans.
I want to touch on the concerns raised by my hon. Friends the Members for Buckingham and for Aylesbury with regard to the construction of these projects. Earlier this week, I met the independent HS2 construction commissioner whom we have appointed to investigate construction complaints and help us understand the impacts of HS2’s delivery. That is just one of the ways in which we monitor not just the cost and efficiency of the project but how HS2 is being delivered to minimise the adverse impacts on local people.
3:01 pm
House adjourned.
With every delay the project incurs, another farm risks going under. Over time, this has a devastating effect on the local rural economy, which is underpinned by farming through employment and the custom they bring. Take the Gosses in Quainton, who have been kept waiting months for answers on whether their land will in fact be split in two; or Deanne Wood in Twyford and Andy Hunter in Fleet Marston, both of whom have suffered terrible flooding as a result of HS2’s poor monitoring. Robert Withey’s father sadly passed away under the enormous stress and anxiety caused by the project taking over the family farm. Then there is Joseph Hodges, whose land lies not just in the railway’s path but where the enormous infrastructure maintenance depot will be built in the coming years, a facility which has no place in such a rural location, taking vast swathes of agricultural land away from those who depend on it.
Regardless of what sort of affected business we are talking about, the project has no means to compensate them. What were the proponents of the scheme thinking? It is well established that major infrastructure projects rarely run to time or budget. HS2 takes that to a whole new level, yet has no means to compensate those who have materially suffered under its weight. One example is the Prince of Wales pub in Steeple Claydon, a village which is surrounded by compounds on all sides. With so much construction concentrated in one small area, the seemingly endless road closures that each project supposedly requires have a knock-on effect for businesses that rely on customers travelling between villages, as well as for the hardworking employees of those businesses. When East West Rail shut Queen Catherine Road and HS2 shut Addison Road last year, the Prince of Wales lost approximately £3,000 in turnover a week, which is massive for any small village pub. That is on top of the 50%, 60% and 70% increases in gas and electricity bills we have seen recently. It is further estimated that the upcoming closure of Addison Road from February to the end of July this year will cost that pub another £50,000 in lost revenue, but no compensation is on the table.
The risk of businesses being caught in a perpetual cycle of endless road closures therefore goes far beyond the business itself. It deprives residents of long-standing community assets without any recompense or even so much as an acknowledgement of how devastating such losses are. Take Andy and Dan Price’s coach company Langston & Tasker, whose business by nature relies on the local road network to operate. A contracted provider of school transport for Buckinghamshire Council, they have also been caught in the road closure shuffle. Any roads they use risk covering their vehicles in mud or even often ripping tyres off their rims, yet they, too, have never been compensated for any of the damage undoubtedly caused by both HS2 and East West Rail’s construction vehicles. All the while, schoolchildren continually turn up late, having been kept waiting at the bus stop while HS2 and East West Rail HGVs come speeding past, putting at risk anyone unlucky enough to come face to face with a driver who is more interested in putting his own schedule above the safety of other road users.
For Langston & Tasker, Andy and Dan are having to deal with huge diversions, all of which put significant strain on company finances through added fuel cost and wear and tear: Buckingham Road closed, an additional 92 miles a day, or 460 miles a week; West Street closed, an additional 110 miles a day, or 550 miles a week; Queen Catherine Road closed, an additional 20 miles a day, or 100 miles a week on the bottom line for that bus company; and West Street and Queen Catherine Road closed, an additional 182 miles a day, or 910 miles extra per week for that company. That costs fuel, that costs tyres, that costs them their business.
Behind the scenes, the project’s directors have clearly lost control of their contractors, with one going so far as to seek planning permission for a training centre near Twyford, now downgraded to a storage facility, which I am extremely disappointed to report to House has been granted by the Planning Inspectorate. How on earth can a contractor be allowed to seek permission for something not in the Act, something so substantial and unsuitable for a rural environment, something so close to residents, on top of all the existing disruption that HS2 has brought on this community? This sets the worrying precedent for all rural communities that HS2 or any other major infrastructure project will happily let their contractors, which clearly have no regard for local residents and businesses, run rampant without so much as a slap on the wrist. This simply must change. The presumption must change and be flipped from what is convenient for the contractor to what is in the interests of the local people.
Our roads have suffered under the project’s weight. Across the network we are seeing key routes fall into seemingly terminal decline—key routes that have been taken over by HGVs going to and from compounds. Whether it is HS2, East West Rail or, frankly, any other project making use of the local road network, expectations have not remotely met reality. That is a prime example of the failure to account for the cumulative impact of multiple major infrastructure projects.
Another issue is the enormous burden that these projects place on our local authority—Buckinghamshire Council. Bucks council has valiantly stepped up to the plate and pushed back against these mega-projects when the plans—whether it be road closures, safety concerns over bridges, or unwarranted and, at times, illegal hedgerow or tree removal, harm the interests of residents and businesses across my constituency and the whole country. Time and again critical information has been withheld from the council by HS2 and East West Rail relating to road closures, traffic management and a whole host of other key aspects of construction. All too often the projects do not even talk to each other, let alone the council. That is all to the cost of our council tax payers. Fundamentally, the council should not be put in this position in the first place. The council has been forced to direct more and more resources to deal with something, in the form of HS2, that it did not want in the first place. Certainly, with East West Rail, however much benefit there may be from that particular railway and a new station at Winslow, whenever they happen to be delivered, it simply cannot be worth the detrimental state that contractors have left our entire area in during the process.
Even to this day, HS2 and East West Rail claim they are good neighbours. Yet, just this morning, I learned from residents of Comerford Way and McLernon Way that the track-laying train is due to arrive between 10 pm and 4 am right at the back of their houses. The disruption from that will be immense. No one should have to put up with all these issues from the projects, from cracked foundations in their homes, flooded fields where their crops once grew, roads that become impassable with potholes, and intimidating behaviour from the projects’ security teams. I could go on, but these problems cannot; they must be tackled head-on.
All major infrastructure projects based in rural areas must recognise their impact on local communities and take their responsibilities seriously. The Department for Transport must recognise this glaring flaw. Countless businesses in my constituency are demanding compensation for unreasonable and unfair treatment from all levels of the project, from contractors to senior management. No one has been willing to step up and take responsibility for the human impact that this ever-worsening situation is causing. Indeed, HS2 and East West Rail are both operating in isolation from reality—the reality of people’s lives and livelihoods, of public safety, of businesses going under, and of billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money that the project is consuming. That cannot be allowed to continue.
As we see in the news today talk of delays and ways to try to claw back some of that money, I urge the Minister, when he responds, to give a cast iron guarantee from that Dispatch Box that, as those cuts and delays are looked at, not one cut and not one delay will impact on my constituents or anyone affected by the construction of this project, not least in the mitigations that have been promised, such as the bund at Twyford. This project, HS2, East West Rail and all other infrastructure projects must be held better to account, and they must decide to change their behaviour in favour of local people and away from their own convenience.
Indeed, Fairford Leys is a perfect microcosm of what dealing with HS2 Ltd can be like on the ground. The company has refused now to reopen a path there that is extremely popular with walkers, despite residents saying that there is no sign of any work actually taking place at that spot. Not surprisingly, this has caused great upset and annoyance. HS2 Ltd’s decision to fence off areas in that same location and put up surveillance cameras has led to residents now saying that they feel besieged by this white elephant that none of them wanted in the first place. Of course, I take these concerns up with HS2 Ltd directly, but they should not be happening in the first place.
Put simply, if people want to drive on a road, HS2 makes their life a misery; if they want to walk on a path, HS2 makes their life a misery. Such inconvenience and intransigence lose HS2 Ltd even what little goodwill it has ever had, and it is already in very short supply. Unfortunately, we have many more years of this to come. Therefore, like my constituency neighbour, I urge my hon. Friend the Minister, who knows the local area well, to tell HS2 Ltd to get a grip and deliver on its promise to be a good neighbour, not the neighbour from hell.
HS2 Ltd, the East West Rail Alliance and their contractors are required to comply with exacting environmental requirements, including a comprehensive code of construction practice, which specifies measures to minimise the full range of impacts that any construction project has on affected people and communities. We also expect them to go further, where possible. For example, I am pleased to see HS2 pushing the boundaries for construction projects in areas such as air quality and carbon management.
I know that my hon. Friends will not entirely agree, but I want to reference the legacy and opportunities of these railway projects. Through their programme of innovation, they are leaving a legacy of improvements across the construction industry and providing a breadth of opportunities for local communities up and down the country. HS2 in particular is supporting over 29,000 jobs, and local places are already identifying opportunities to use it to support the delivery of more jobs, homes, investment and economic growth. Over 1,100 apprentices have been recruited on the HS2 programme since February 2017, and more than 2,500 businesses from across the UK have delivered work on HS2. More than 97% of the HS2 supply chain is UK-registered, and more than 60% is made up of small and medium-sized enterprises.
HS2 is committed to delivering no net loss to biodiversity on phases 1 and 2a. Similarly, on the first section of East West Rail and on HS2 phase 2b, there is a commitment to deliver a biodiversity net gain of 10%, to ensure that construction not only protects but enhances the natural environment that local communities can enjoy. To date, East West Rail has delivered 1,100 hectares, or over 240 acres, of new habitats at more than 20 different sites and planted 150,000 plants and trees. For its part, HS2 Ltd has created nearly 120 new sites and planted 845,000 trees.
Let me turn to the construction challenges. Despite all the efforts, the scale of these projects brings additional challenges, and I thank my hon. Friends for giving us some examples. The most important thing is that, where challenges or issues occur, we are committed to resolving them as quickly as possible and ensuring that lessons are learned for the future. My predecessor, my right hon. Friend the Member for Pendle (Andrew Stephenson), who is sitting on the Treasury Bench, did a fantastic job, and I want to continue his fine work by engaging with my hon. Friends.
My hon. Friends raised concerns about the extra damage to roads caused by heavy construction traffic. I am aware that both HS2 Ltd and the East West Rail Company have been working closely with Buckinghamshire Council in the last year to improve the way that such road repairs are managed. They have already allocated considerable resources to dealing with this particular problem.
My hon. Friend the Member for Buckingham will be aware, from a letter that he has received from East West Rail, that it has formally agreed the scope of repairs required for approximately half of Buckinghamshire Council’s construction links. The first of those repairs were completed on Queen Catherine Road and Whaddon Road at the end of last year. The remaining repairs will be ongoing through 2023. The repairs will be co-ordinated with HS2 road closures, minimising disruption to local residents. I will meet my hon. Friend, Buckinghamshire Council, HS2 and East West Rail shortly, in a face-to-face meeting, to see what else needs to be done. My hon. Friend the Member for Aylesbury would be most welcome to join that meeting so that we can focus on matters across his constituency.
To conclude, both HS2 and East West Rail are major projects that, in time, will bring major benefits, just like the Elizabeth line. However, at this point in time it is natural that people are more focused on the problems that we encounter along the way. I assure my hon. Friends that that is a key preoccupation for us, too. My Department will continue to investigate incidents that are brought to my attention, and we will push for improvements where we feel that they are necessary. As the Minister responsible for rail, I will continue to work with my hon. Friends and others to ensure that we get the delivery of infrastructure projects right. I thank my hon. Friends for their contributions.