Recommendation 23

We asked the Department about the private sector investment that would be needed as part of delivering the benefits expected from the programme. The Department told us that it had started to take steps to encourage private sector investment to ensure these were delivered. For example, it was working with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation on their investment plans and the government had announced £50 million in the Budget to support development around Birmingham Interchange station to allow more land for development and regeneration. However, the Department conceded that the sooner it could provide certainty around its integration rail plan and what is expected for the rest of the rail network, the more helpful it would be to ensure that the investment that it expected to stimulate happened in practice. The Department did not commit to a date on which the integrated rail plan will be published but could only say that it will be published “soon”.54