§ 37. Mr. CohenTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport what proportion of Network SouthEast's investment is for schemes situated inside Greater London.
§ Mr. FreemanNetwork SouthEast's investment cannot readily be disaggregated geographically. Network SouthEast operates a network of routes which radiate from London to various parts of the South East and the majority of their investment is by line of route. Because Network SouthEast's primary function is to move64W commuters into and out of central London each day, virtually all line of route investment, eg resignalling and new rolling stock, will benefit Greater London either directly (insofar as part of the route is inside Greater London) or indirectly (by providing a more reliable and efficient service generally to London). Some expenditure, for example on station modernisation and smaller infrastructure works, is specific to a particular location outside Greater London, but this forms only a small part of Network SouthEast's £.1.2 billion three-year investment programme. However, over the next five years, investment of some £700 million in new Networker trains and associated infrastructure work is planned for south east inner suburban services the benefits of this will fall almost wholly within Greater London.
§ 71. Mr. BoatengTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport what proportion of Network SouthEast's investment is funded from the public purse.
§ Mr. FreemanOver the next three years, Network SouthEast plans to invest some £1.2 billion, out of a total BR investment programme of over £3.7 billion. BR's overall investment programme will be funded from both internal and external sources. Internal sources (including receipts from the sale of assets owned by the taxpayer through BR and funding through the revenue account and also linking capital improvements) will account for some 45 per cent. of the total programme of £3.7 billion. External sources of funding are classified as public expenditure and comprise revenue subsidy paid by the Government and borrowing, principally from the National Loans Fund. These external funding sources will account for the remaining 57 per cent. of the programme. British Rail's sectors, such as Network SouthEast, do not have audited accounts and the public expenditure figures are not broken down between them.