{"value":{"id":1237306,"askingMemberId":3526,"askingMember":null,"house":"Lords","memberHasInterest":false,"dateTabled":"2020-09-23T00:00:00","dateForAnswer":"2020-10-07T00:00:00","uin":"HL8408","questionText":"To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking, if any, to progress the development of a privately financed Southern Railway link to Heathrow Airport.","answeringBodyId":27,"answeringBodyName":"Department for Transport","isWithdrawn":false,"isNamedDay":false,"groupedQuestions":[],"answerIsHolding":false,"answerIsCorrection":false,"answeringMemberId":4580,"answeringMember":null,"correctingMemberId":null,"correctingMember":null,"dateAnswered":"2020-10-07T00:00:00","answerText":"<p>This government has committed to building a Britain with world class infrastructure. SAtH would be part of the Government’s plan to build back better, greener and faster. We remain committed that a Southern Access to Heathrow should be a ‘Pathfinder Project’ working with the private sector to harness new and innovative ideas while reducing the burden on fare and taxpayers.</p><p> </p><p>The Department has undertaken extensive stakeholder engagement to develop a set of strategic objectives for the Southern Access to Heathrow scheme. Throughout this process the Department has remained ‘outcome-focused’ and mode-agnostic allowing space for private sector innovation and ideas. It is not a detailed specification for the scheme at this stage.</p><p> </p><p>Since the publication of these Strategic Objectives in November 2019, the Department has worked to finalise a ‘Pre-Strategic Outline Business Case’, to outline the case for change and need for a scheme such as this, setting out practically how this scheme should be taken forwards.</p><p> </p><p>The Department is developing commercial and financial models for working alongside the private sector to fund, finance, and deliver this scheme.</p><p> </p><p>Following Ministerial approval and alignment to the upcoming HM Treasury Infrastructure Finance Review, the Department intends to provide further guidance regarding the commercial approach in early 2021.</p>","originalAnswerText":"","comparableAnswerText":"","dateAnswerCorrected":null,"dateHoldingAnswer":null,"attachmentCount":0,"heading":"Heathrow Airport: Railways","attachments":[],"groupedQuestionsDates":[]},"links":[{"rel":"self","href":"/Questions/1237306","method":"GET"}]}