Hampshire and Surrey: Enterprise M3 LEP supports future rail investment proposals - but it should be delivered sooner

The Hampshire County Council-Enterprise M3 Local Enterprise Partnership says it supports future rail investment proposals but it needs to be delivered sooner.

The Enterprise M3 LEP broadly supports the final version of the Wessex Route Study published this week, it says. It urges the Government to urgently bring forward funding needed to address the significant crowding and lack of capacity on peak services into London Waterloo and through much of the region.

Although welcoming most of the proposals contained in the final version of the study, Enterprise M3 LEP expresses concern about an overall lack of ambition and that some of the timescales identified remain far too long.

"The issues faced on the Wessex routes particularly around lack of capacity, are already acting as a constraint on economic growth and these are only predicted to get worse," says Geoff French, chairman of Enterprise M3 LEP.

French adds: “Despite our strong representations, the final version of the strategy still doesn’t fully consider the impact of potential growth in the area and fails to consider business’ significant growth aspirations. The conclusion that using local forecasts of housing and population would bias investment towards those areas with the most ambitious aspirations, rather than where investment is most required, is bewildering as investment is clearly most needed to support future growth.

“Nevertheless, despite this, Enterprise M3 remains strongly supportive of the Wessex Rail Study and will work closely with our rail industry partners to urge Government to ensure that the significant investment needed to provide sufficient capacity and reliability on the South West main line is forthcoming so that economic growth in the area is able to reach its full potential.”

The Enterprise M3 LEP area stretches from the hinterland of London to the New Forest, covering mid to north Hampshire and South West Surrey. The LEP area brings together business leaders from 14 district authorities across two counties and has four major interconnected urban centres known as ‘Growth’ towns: Woking, Guildford, Farnborough and Basingstoke and five ‘Step-up’ towns: Staines-upon-Thames, Camberley, Aldershot, Whitehill and Bordon and Andover.