As a trading nation one of the greatest challenges facing our country is to ensure that our transport infrastructure is capable of meeting the demands of businesses and commuters. Delivering sufficient capacity in our transport network, particularly for airports, has been something that successive Governments have struggled to deliver.
Last month, the Prime Minister Theresa May announced that following the conclusions of the Airports Commission led by Sir Howard Davies, additional airport capacity will be delivered through a third runway at Heathrow. This will enable the UK to continue to punch above its weight on the world stage and provide much needed certainty for promoting Britain as a tourism and trade hub.
Closer to home, Rugby enjoys strong transport links with Birmingham Airport which is less than thirty minutes away by train. I have had the opportunity to meet with the team at Birmingham Airport on a number of occasions and have seen first-hand the investment which has helped Birmingham significantly increase its capacity over recent years.
Alongside the expansion of Heathrow, the Government has committed to upgrade the UK’s infrastructure. This includes ambitious plans for the Midlands, bringing together local authorities and Local Enterprise Partnerships to deliver Midlands Connect. This will deliver the transport infrastructure that the region needs to drive economic growth in the years to come and I look forward to seeing the proposals when they are unveiled early next year.
As Britain looks to leave the European Union, it is more important than ever to invest in our infrastructure. We must seize the chance to take the skills and high tech engineering that the Midlands is famous for out into the world, and to do that we need to ensure that we invest now. It has now been over a year since the Davies Commission recommended a third runway at Heathrow and nearly four years since the Commission first met. Now is the time to get moving and ensure that future generations have the resources they need to be successful.