§ Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domerasked Her Majesty's Government:
What advice they have given to the British Railways Board regarding retention of ex-British Rail land; and [HL3573]
What criteria they advise the British Railways Board to use when deciding whether land should be retained; and [HL3574]
Whether they regard forecasts of passenger and freight growth as one of the criteria that should be 52WA taken into account when deciding whether or not to retain railway land. [HL3575]
§ Lord WhittyLast July's White Paper on the future of transport announced that, in view of the importance of ensuring that sites which are of potential value to the passenger or freight railway were identified, BRB would suspend land sales while it conducted an audit of its remaining sites and reported to the Government on any which had a realistic prospect of use for transport purposes in the foreseeable future.
The Government are considering the BRB's report of its review and, before taking a decision on the future process for disposal of BR land holdings, intend to take into account the views of Sir Alastair Morton who was appointed as the new BRB/shadow SRA chairman on 1 April.