Speeches by Alexander.

“The expansion of the contactless system to wider areas of the south-east is, I am sure, welcomed by the right hon. Gentleman’s constituents, given the convenience that it gives them. [Interruption.] He shakes his head, but I can tell him that there are a lot of hon. Members across this House who are delighted with the …”

“Claims that Government guidance mandates a certain road width are false and misrepresent guidance from Active Travel England. There have never been legally binding standards for road widths, and that remains the case. It is obviously right that each road should be designed to meet the needs of local use, and that inclu…”

“The hon. Member may wish to suggest to his council that it considers the process for securing money from the structures fund, which we will make an announcement on in the new year, as that fund is designed to help resolve the sorts of situations that he describes in his constituency.”

“I am very happy to ask the Rail Minister to meet my hon. Friend. East West Rail could be transformative for his constituency; indeed, I saw one of his recent Instagram posts explaining some of the improvements at Bletchley. That probably says more about what I am viewing on Instagram than anything else! I have full con…”

“I am interested to hear that the hon. Gentleman’s constituents want to avail themselves of concessions provided by the Labour Mayor of London. The hon. Gentleman will know that Londoners often pay a precept to fund some of the entitlements they have in London. That is why his constituents, who fall outside the Greater …”

“I am happy to talk to my officials about that particular scheme. If I may, I will come back to the hon. Lady in writing.”

“I would be happy to ask the Rail Minister to meet the hon. Gentleman to talk about the particular issues around the station that he mentions and to understand what more we could do to properly integrate transport options in that area.”

“A decision was taken by the Cabinet Office this year about not making the outcome delivery plan available publicly. We are working on a longer-term outcome delivery plan. As Jo said in her answer, pending discussions across Government with the Cabinet Office, the current thinking is that that longer-term plan would be …”

“I am really lucky to have an excellent team. You are right to say that Lilian Greenwood, who had been the Future of Roads Minister, is now spending some of her time as the transport Whip. I have reorganised the portfolios of the Ministers to make sure that individuals have the right workload. Lilian will be taking on t…”

“There are two really important things to remember when it comes to investment in transport over the next three to four years, both in the day-to-day spending, so the resource spending that we have, and the capital spending. Jo might like to pick up on some of the detail of it. Broadly speaking, when you look at capital…”

“The quickest and easiest way to explain this is that we need to get more bums on seats. We need to increase the number of people who are using the railways. The less we are paying as a country to move half-empty bits of steel around the rail network, the better value for money we will be getting, so there is an ambitio…”

“Jo, you might want to pick this one up. I can tell you what outcomes we are trying to achieve.”

“Good morning, everyone. Thanks ever so much for having me back. I think the last time I was here was in April, so it is good to have this regular catch-up. You asked me how I would assess the state of progress in my Department, with this Government having been in office for 16 months now. I think we are doing a good jo…”

“I am Heidi Alexander and I am the Secretary of State for Transport.”

“It was a specific decision of the Government to publish the spending review, the industrial strategy and the infrastructure strategy around the same time, so that we could make sure that they were aligned and could provide long-term certainty about the investment pipeline, for example, to lever in private sector invest…”

“The Chancellor and the Treasury are very aware of the potential electric vehicles offer in terms of jobs of the future. We are investing in battery giga plants, for example, and supporting developments down in Somerset around that. We also moved very swiftly in the summer, when we had some volatility around internation…”

“I hope to be able to say more on that in the next couple of months. We are fully committed to ensuring that the great cities of the north of England have better rail connectivity, but we want to get it right. Following the publication of the James Stewart review, it makes sense for us to take our time and make sure tha…”

“No, we need to make sure that our spending priorities map clearly against the outcomes that we are trying to achieve. First and foremost among those is making sure that we are supporting growth in the economy. The second one is that we create a cleaner, greener, safer and healthier transport system. We also want to mak…”

“As I said, that informed all our discussions at the spending review. Through the spending review, we secured a package that enables us to grow the economy, be that the more than £25 billion that we are spending on HS2 in capital, or the £15.6 billion that we are spending on transport for city regions to unlock producti…”

“I understand the point you are making, Chair. When we publish the integrated national transport strategy next year, that will give you a clearer sense of direction on some of the issues that you are raising.”