Jonathan Davies

My hon. Friend makes an important point. I am glad that the Government have begun to address this shortfall. The investment of £2 billion into the East Midlands combined authority under Mayor Claire Ward specifically to be used for transport will go some way towards addressing that, but there is a lot more to do because the east midlands has historically been left behind. The merits of electrification of the east midlands railway will benefit our rural and semi-rural towns. Belper is a town of nearly 25,000 people. It is in the heart of the east midlands and has the region’s only UNESCO world heritage site: the Derwent Valley mills. I very much hope that it will be England’s, or the UK’s, next town of culture —it makes a good case for that. But to help people get to Belper when it is the town of culture, as I am sure it will be, we need to ensure that the rail connections are there. At the moment, there is only one train in each direction on the Midland main line that stops. People have to go to Derby or change, or they drive to Derby and get on the express train from there. I plead with the Minister to please take forward the benefits of Midland main line electrification, because it would benefit rural and semi-rural stations too.