Speeches by Aquarone.

“Thank you all for your contributions so far. I want to talk about the practicalities of what the pipeline should look like. There is clearly not a huge amount of rhetoric in the title of this inquiry. This Committee has a belief that a rail investment pipeline could help end boom and bust. I am interested in the practi…”

“Okay. Rolling stock is in the pipeline.”

“Infrastructure as in major projects or RNEP?”

“Thank you.”

“Thank you. Lord Hendy.”

“That is a good point. I meant more about trying to get away from it being a wish list. Part of getting away from it being a wish list is to understand whose wishes are represented in each element of it.”

“On incorporating the long-term strategic ambition for rail into that pipeline, there must be some capacity to set the direction, subject to successive Governments’ agendas over a period that goes beyond what you have just described, Lord Hendy, and into maybe the 20 to 30-year outlook, or is that wildly unrealistic?”

“This may be a multi-layered pipeline with different degrees of political risk, funding certainty and time horizon built into it. What is the ideal time horizon, bearing in mind that the answer may well be separate for each layer?”

“For clarity, it is four years before we hear about Ely and Haughley.”

“On the theme of clarity—this is my last question on this area, Chair—you are comfortable with a rail investment pipeline being strategically led, multi-layered, with different time horizons, quite detailed in terms of the picture that is painted around each possible scheme, what the business case is, and then of course…”

“Indeed. It is not just third-party funding; it is also whether it is coming from regional authorities or local government or other schemes and investments, and incorporating the ambition of smaller projects like Access for All into the pipeline.”

“Thank you. Does anyone else have anything to add to those comments?”

“I appreciate what you have already said about the lessons learnt and oversight, Alan. I accept that you cannot proceduralise your way out of having problems. That is a very fair statement. I am interested in the relationship, though. Trust came up in the Stewart review. Do you have any reflections on what was stated in…”

“It was progress over price before.”

“I have one more follow-up. Thinking about the role of the delivery organisation, the client, which is the public and the Department, and the extent to which you have to be a very informed expert client to make these relationships work, Alan, is there enough commercial engineering experience in the Department to make it…”

“It was almost a blank cheque.”

“Just for my clarity, with a cost-plus model it is not that many contractors are gobbling up profits from across the supply chain; it is just that they are not incentivised and, by the sound of it, nobody is incentivised to improve competitiveness and reduce price in the supply chain.”

“Can you give us a bit more understanding of what that means? You are talking about going deeper into the supply chain and being part of the negotiation of supply contracts? What is the business as usual approach, as opposed to the plan B approach?”

“I completely agree that that barrier must be addressed, and the business case is so clear and easy to see. The Government should focus on supporting employment opportunities in our coastal communities by investing in our tourism and hospitality sectors, supporting training and development opportunities, and fixing our …”

“I look forward to the shareable case study from Clywd North when it is available, because things can be done, and doubtless they are being done, but we need to be doing them in every corner of the country and every coastal community around our country. I hope the Government accept my new clause 5 to force them to make …”