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Crossrail Bill [Instruction No. 2]

It is not only strange; even if that report did consider Crossrail funding, it would be somewhat illogical for a report on the future financing of local government suddenly to be extended to include an analysis of the cost of what will be one of Britain’s biggest transport projects. My hon. Friend will remember episodes of ““Yes, Minister”” in which inconvenient decisions were delayed by a useful review. Far be it from me to suggest that that was the Secretary of State’s motivation, but I am sure that there are those who will have a similar suspicion. I do not believe for a moment that the Government will make a commitment to fund Crossrail any time soon. I do not believe that it will make such a commitment at any stage during this Parliament. The people of Reading and of north Kent will be allowed to make all the representations to the Committee that they want to make about Crossrail’s terminus. My hon. Friend the Member for Brentwood and Ongar and his constituents may not be allowed to make the same representations, but in fact, this is all talk. Such discussions will not lead to substantial decisions, so in that sense, I can allay his concerns. I have no doubt that the Government will encourage members of the Select Committee to consider very carefully new ideas to develop the project. I have no doubt that Ministers will make warm noises in response to those deliberations; they may even put dotted lines on the project team maps to illustrate future options. But I do not believe for one moment that Ministers intend that all this should lead to real action and real new capacity for the travelling public. When the right hon. Member for Knowsley, North and Sefton, East (Mr. Howarth) discusses Merseytram in this House, it becomes clear to me that the Government cannot be trusted to keep their promises on transport. If they cannot afford small projects, it is hard to believe that they can afford big ones. We Conservatives, along with constituents and business communities throughout London, will continue to support this Bill and these motions, and we will continue to encourage the project team in the hope that the Government will surprise us and actually deliver this time. But I suspect that the termini in Reading and Ebbsfleet—and, indeed, the whole Crossrail project—are destined under this Government to become just another set of bullet points in the long list of the Government’s broken promises on transport.