Major HS2 factory facing closure… before it can make a single HS2 train
The prime minister, Rishi Sunak, said last month that the Government is “doing everything it can to support the supply chain“, ensuring there is a “good pipeline of work” coming down the line.
Harper argues that he and his team “have been working intensively with Alstom UK and Hitachi over many months”. In a letter to Haigh last month, which he posted online, the Transport Secretary rejected what he called “the erroneous suggestion that there is a simple solution to complex matters” involving private firms.
“We have looked extensively at bringing forward opportunities for rolling stock orders and refurbishment,” he wrote. Harper believes this could break procurement law in a “market-driven process” and lead to legal challenges. He dismissed the idea that rules could be changed “at the stroke of a pen”.
A Department for Transport spokesperson said: “Rail manufacturing plays an important role in growing the UK economy and delivering better services for passengers.
“The Government is committed to supporting the entire sector and we remain in close contact with Alstom to secure a sustainable future for rail manufacturing at Derby.
In a follow-up letter to the Transport Secretary, Haigh says that Harper’s arguments are “disingenuous at best”, because the Government has “ultimate sign off” on all major rail spending, and can vary contract specifications as the overall “tendering authority”.
She maintains that the DfT and the two companies should “never have gotten into this mess in the first place”, adding: “If I were Transport Secretary today, I’d be in Derby working with management and the workforce on every available option to protect jobs.”
Unite has also been scathing. The union’s general secretary, Sharon Graham, says ministers “do not seem to care”.
Closure of the Derby site would be doubly embarrassing for the Government because last year the city was chosen as the base for Great British Railways, a new public organisation charged with running the network.
The official announcement said: “Derby is already home to Europe’s largest rail cluster – providing thousands of skilled jobs and benefiting from well-established rail links to towns and cities across the country.”
Great British Railways has still not formally launched. By the time it eventually gets going, that celebrated “cluster” may no longer exist. That will hurt other livelihoods, too.
The controversy surrounding the Government’s decision to scrap the Birmingham to Manchester leg of HS2, having already abandoned the line to Leeds – plus the suggestion that the remaining track may not stretch to London’s Euston terminus – means that some have blamed delays to the project for Derby’s woes.
The Government is adamant that this isn’t true. “It is simply incorrect to attribute Alstom’s challenges to HS2,” the DfT spokesperson says. “It is part of a contract with Hitachi to design, build and maintain trains for Phase One only and this remains unchanged following our decision to cancel Phase Two.”
Harper argues he has been seeking “viable and sustainable long-term options” for Alstom and Hitachi’s problems. But both companies feel the long term will look after itself, if the situation right now can be fixed.
