Adonis sets out battle lines for spending
By Ian Dunt
The transport secretary has launched an opening salvo against cuts to Labour’s spending programme, by stressing that transport projects should not become a victim of the row over economic responsibility.
Gordon Brown is under increasing pressure among Labour activists to come clean over the necessity for cuts, after his debates with David Cameron on the subject showed him increasingly accused of dishonesty.
But an interview with Lord Adonis in the Independent today saw him draw a line in the sand over cuts to his department’s projects.
“High-speed rail is a long-term project. The fact that we have constrained finances for the next few years shouldn’t lead us to constrain our ambition,” he said.
“On the contrary, what we’re planning for is the infrastructure we will need over the next generation. We won’t be spending serious money on it for at least five years.
“The bane of infrastructure planning in this country has been the failure to think for the long term and to cancel projects because of very short-term funding constraints.”
Lord Adonis is the first senior minister to launch a defensive statement concerning cuts to his department.
He is understood to be fiercely committed to his ambitious high-speed rail line, which would cost around eight billion and link London to Glasgow. It is thought that the PM’s support for the scheme convinced Lord Adonis to move to the department.
Britain’s transport budget is expected by some to become a prominent casualty of any future cuts, with the government expected to borrow from it to prop up other projects.
“I believe passionately that we will only become a thoroughly modern country when we have a thoroughly modern transport system,” Lord Adonis said.
“Developing the plan for high-speed rail is as big a reform as we have carried out. The prime minister is absolutely committed to that, too. If we are going to be a successful country in the 21st century, we are going to need a modern rail system that must include high-speed rail between our major conurbations.
“The difference between doing it [the high-speed line] soon and doing it in another generation would be huge,” he said.
