Network Rail chairman Sir Peter Hendy calls for private financing for CP6 projects
Projects that are privately funded will be prioritised in Network Rail鈥檚 next spending programme, the client鈥檚 chairman has said.
Speaking at the London Infrastructure Summit, Network Rail chairman Sir Peter Hendy said he expects projects in Control Period 6 that secure funding from investors and local authorities will be prioritised by government to ease the financial burden.
Hendy said: 鈥淚f you want better railways for the advancement of greater economic growth and better jobs and housing, then I see no reason why you should contribute some of the money towards this.
He added: 鈥淢y prediction is that one of the main rankings of projects in CP6 will be the amount of third party funding they can secure.鈥�
Hendy said he will 鈥渁sk everybody for money鈥� in financing projects and will also look to raise money through tax increment financing and the community infrastructure levy.
He added that if train operating companies wanted to put money into the railway network 鈥渢hey鈥檙e welcome to put their hands up鈥� but said Network Rail 鈥渃an鈥檛 rely on their investment鈥�.
Network Rail鈥檚 CP6 spending programme is expected to start in April 2019 and run to March 2024, but Hendy said he expects the report from HS1 chief executive Nicola Shaw into the funding and structure of Network Rail to recommend longer control periods.
He said: 鈥淲hat I think Nicola will say, as it鈥檚 so obviously true, is the railways need a longer term planning horizon.
鈥淚f you look at the five-year plans, good though it is, some projects last longer than five years.
鈥淲e had the luxury of a longer-term plan at TfL but we don鈥檛 have that in rail yet because of the five-year funding periods. We should be looking at a longer term plan.鈥�
Hendy also revealed that he has had meetings with Camden council and HS2 about the new HS2 station at Euston and said the parties are 鈥渃loser to a unified view of what the place should look like.鈥�
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