Clause 1
Channel Tunnel Rail Link (Supplementary Provisions) Bill
11:30 am
Tom Harris (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Transport; Glasgow South, Labour)
I also welcome you to the Chair, Mr. Atkinson, and apologise for not having done so earlier. We are all treading in new territory at the moment, and I am not sure when there would have been an earlier opportunity.
The hon. Member for Wimbledon always tries to be helpful. I can tell when he is doing so because he says that he is trying to be helpful. However, as in this particular case, it never quite works out that way. I understand the sentiment behind the amendment, and I sympathise with his intentions and the commercial principle that he promotes. It would be wrong for the UK taxpayer to subsidise services across the continent. Members of the Committee might take comfort in the fact that the Secretary of State would not have the power to do so, even if she wanted to. The power to support services under the 2005 Act extends to Great Britain only—not to France, Belgium, or anywhere else where a commercial operator might wish to run services.
Eurostar is a joint venture. Its present structure is supported by a set of cost and revenue-sharing protocols among the three partner companies in the UK, France and Belgium. Under those agreements, Eurostar UK Ltd—the UK partner owned by London and Continental Railways—pays only the access charges on the UK side, and half of the charges for the tunnel itself. Any restructuring of the joint venture would also have to be on terms that protected taxpayers’ interests.
The amendment would rule out leaving in place some of the historical support that the Government have already agreed to provide to Eurostar UK Ltd, such as the access charge loan and the guarantees of its rolling stock places. An objective for next year’s restructuring is to make Eurostar and all LCR’s businesses independent, self-standing and financially sustainable. The Government and LCR should be in a position in which a full range of options is available to meet that objective so that decisions taken best protect the taxpayers’ interests.
The hon. Gentleman is right in that the Government’s intention behind the clause is to allow continued subsidy or support for domestic services, not international services. I said on Second Reading:
“It does not mean that the Government have any long-term intention to offer public subsidy to Eurostar.”—[Official Report, 20 November 2007; Vol. 467, c. 1156.]
With that reassurance, I hope that he will withdraw the amendment.