Speeches by Alexander.

“I want Great British Railways to be established in 2027. The organisation on day one of its existence will be different from the organisation on day 150 and day 200. I anticipate that the establishment of the organisation in Derby will be taking place in 2027, and we are totally committed to your great railway city bei…”

“All of that work is still under way. Shadow GBR is made up of the component organisations that will ultimately be part of Great British Railways. I asked Laura Shoaf, chair of shadow GBR, to lead on five priorities for me in the period before we get the legislation through and GBR is established. One of those is about …”

“The role of the Mayors in helping to plan and manage the railways will be important, because they will often be aware in their regions of the particular parts of the network where this is a critical issue. I think that in setting up Great British Railways—we used this phrase earlier—we need to go back to basics; we nee…”

“I was struggling to decipher a question in the speech that was forthcoming from the other side of the Chamber. The right hon. Gentleman asks me to comment on the opening of the Silvertown tunnel in east London. I suspect that a number of his constituents—regardless of whether they are driving for work or to try to reac…”

“I know that the Minister for Future of Roads would be very happy to visit my hon. Friend in his constituency. While we cannot reopen the decision on dualling the A1, we are happy to look at whether smaller-scale schemes could address specific issues around safety and congestion on that very important road. The public a…”

“I hear appreciation from the hon. Gentleman on the Opposition Front Bench. Those works will also include the M3 junction 9 scheme in Hampshire, which will support 2,000 more homes. By raising living standards, creating high-quality jobs and kick-starting economic growth, these projects will drive this Government’s plan…”

“Decisions on the appropriate speed limits on their roads are decisions for local highways authorities. I will not pretend to know the detail of what my hon. Friend is talking about, but I will say that safety is an absolute priority for this Government, and that any local highway authority should be taking appropriate …”

“We are running a number of Live Labs projects to look at how we can best make use of AI and new technology to ensure we get good value for money in delivering roads maintenance. Over the next year, we will be working with the UK Roads Leadership Group to update the code of practice on well-maintained highways. I would …”

“First, I congratulate my hon. Friend’s constituents on an excellent sense of humour and perceptiveness in describing the state of the roads in their community. I would say simply to his local authority that it has no excuse. It has the money—get on and fix it. As much as we want to see councils go full steam ahead on r…”

“I will just make a little bit of progress. I will give way to the hon. Gentleman later. The Government will end decades of decay on our roads. We will lift the lid on how taxpayers’ money gets spent. We think that is a crucial part of the solution. I am pleased that this move has been positively received, with the RAC,…”

“The wider transparency and accountability measures we have announced, whereby we are withholding a quarter of the funding uplift until such time as the local authority has demonstrated how it is using that money, will hopefully be of assistance to both the hon. Lady and her constituents. It is only right that taxpayers…”

“We are asking local authorities to publish a report on their websites by June this year. We are tipping more money into highways maintenance and it is absolutely right that people should see visible results on their roads. And it is right that my hon. Friend is holding her local Conservative council to account. Our inv…”

“My hon. Friend is completely right. In some cases, preventive comprehensive road resurfacing will be the appropriate action to take. In total, we are investing around £1.8 billion in fixing our local roads this year.”

“I can give my hon. Friend that assurance. That is why we have ploughed a record £1.6 billion into roads maintenance, including a £500 million uplift on last year. That is on top of the £200 million or so we are putting in the hands of local leaders in the big city regions, empowering mayoral combined authorities to men…”

“Those are matters that the Department constantly reviews. Regarding grid capacity, I refer the hon. Gentleman to my earlier answer to the hon. Member for West Suffolk (Nick Timothy).”

“I do not know whether the right hon. Gentleman has raised the matter with the local highways authority. I believe there may be the ability to apply a weight restriction on roads or to curtail the movement of large heavy goods vehicles. That might be something he wishes to raise with the appropriate authority. I was des…”

“Local authorities are free to use the money as they see fit, as long as they are using it in a way that represents value for money for the taxpayer. The money can be used for work on roads, pavements or structures. On the issue of responsibility raised by my hon. Friend’s constituent, that will be for the local highway…”

“My hon. Friend describes a win-win situation.”

“I beg to move, That this House has considered road maintenance. For too long, Britain has been plagued by potholes. Too many people in too many parts of the country have had their everyday journeys turned into frustrating obstacle courses by our pockmarked roads. It is worse than that, however, because cratered roads c…”

“It is right that we retain the threat of fines, but I gently point out to the right hon. Gentleman that we do not believe that any manufacturers will have to pay fines in the first year of the operation of the ZEV mandate. The trading window for credits is yet to close—it will close later this year—but our initial anal…”