---

Channel Tunnel Rail Link (Supplementary Provisions) Bill

My Lords, I, too, support the amendment, which is designed to create the same regulatory framework for the CTRL as happens on the rest of the network. As my noble friend says, if the text is inadequate perhaps he could suggest some improvements, but that is the intention. As both noble Lords who have already spoken have said, the idea is to enable the independent regulator to fulfil duties not just to set the original charges in accordance with the regulations, which is very important, but also to be able to manage—actually, ““manage”” is probably the wrong word—or to oversee the operation of the infrastructure manager and, if necessary, require them to introduce efficiencies. To return to the setting of charges, there is no doubt at the moment that the lack of charges is putting off other operators from using it. The noble Lord, Lord Bradshaw, mentioned a potential investor. I happen to have met today another equally credible investor who could buy the infrastructure manager. I got exactly the same answer to my question as the noble Lord did. It is not a question of whether the regulator would provide a better deal than the Department for Transport would. For the past 10 to 15 years the regulator’s office has established a precedent, a method of operation and a credibility that make it probably one of the best regulators in this country and certainly the best in Europe—although the latter is maybe not saying a great deal. I shall come on to that. These companies are saying they want certainty. It is the risk of changes of mind by the Department for Transport, or changes of policy, that they cannot price. These investors start off, not with the politics of the House of Lords or the House of Commons, but with a spreadsheet, and they do not like uncertainty. Even though they may be told by the Department for Transport, ““We’ll make sure the charges are really high so you’ll get lots of lovely revenue and therefore you can pay us more””, they will not believe it. They will probably realise that, as with the Channel Tunnel, high charges do not necessarily mean extra revenue. Here we have two investors, whom we happen to have met, who are saying that they would much rather have the thing regulated by the Office of Rail Regulation alongside the rest of the railway. Then we would probably pay more than if it were not, which to some extent puts paid to my noble friend’s argument that the Government want to do it this way because they will get more revenue. If he has evidence from other investors—if I and the noble Lord, Lord Bradshaw, have got it wrong—we would like to hear about it. At the moment, that is my view from the point of view of the investors. Then there is the question of those who will run trains on the line. We shall come to this again when we discuss the second amendment in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Hanningfield. One of the operators I have spoken to who wants to do this said, ““Since we don’t know what the charges are going to be yet, or the regulatory framework, we are not investing in the equipment that needs installing in the locomotives to enable them to work with the signalling on this line””. They have delayed investment. As I mentioned briefly in Committee, there is still no approved network statement nor any charges, nearly two years after the first bit of the line opened. If this had been regulated by the ORR from the start, the infrastructure manager would, quite rightly, have received a hefty fine. If you do not know how much you are going to pay, you are not really going to bother to decide whether you are going to run trains on the line. You do not know whether you can do it without making a loss. This is another example of the lack of stringent regulation that we find because the ORR is not doing it. I return to the costs. One usually finds a relationship between the costs of maintaining a piece of railway and the charges. The regulator, as we all know, is doing an enormously complicated assessment of how much money Network Rail needs to maintain its network. It is likely to say, ““You already reduced your costs by 31 per cent last time and this time we will probably want somewhere between 20 per cent and 30 per cent””. It is easy to say that the Channel Tunnel Rail Link is a new line and it will be very efficient, but it is actually being operated by Network Rail at the moment under a kind of subcontract from the present owners. I suspect that if the Office of Rail Regulation got its teeth into this, it would find ways of saving money even now and might well say to the operators, ““You can save 20 per cent in the next five years””. Again, the lower the costs, the lower the charges and the more traffic that will use the line. It is really quite simple. I look upon the noble Lord, Lord Jones, as a kind of ambassador for many good things that we do in this country. He made a speech during a debate on 14 March, when we were focusing on energy and transport issues. While he is going around the world, he clearly believes that the kind of private sector arrangements we have here for the network industries and the regulation that goes alongside them are something that we are proud of. Personally, I am proud of what is happening on the railways now; it is rather good. The noble Lord said in the rest of the paragraph, which the noble Lord, Lord Bradshaw, did not quote, that: "““A flexible … framework will require greater regulatory co-ordination and consistency, coupled with a robust process for reaching agreement on cross-border issues””,—[Official Report, 14/3/08; col. 1705.]" and all that. He is really saying that we want to sell this to the rest of Europe. We cannot do that unless our own house is in order. I have been talking to people in the Commission about this today. They said, ““Well, Tony, it’s all very fine you saying what a great regulatory framework you’ve got, but if your Department for Transport decides it wants to regulate something because it’s easier and it thinks it’ll make a bit more money, how are you going to sell this to the rest of Europe?”” That is what our railway business wants from this country—many companies are starting to operate on the Continent—but we have to have a sound home base. For me, this is quite simple. I hope my noble friend can answer this question: what is making the Government continue down this path when two major investors and one major operator say that they would pay more money if the Government went down the road of making this railway regulated in the same way as the rest of the network? I look forward to hearing what he has to say.