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Dan Byles MP Welcomes Response After Raising Concerns With Professor McNaughton Over '30 trains per hour' Claim

The Member of Parliament for North Warwickshire & Bedworth Dan Byles, who is a leading campaigner against High Speed 2 (HS2), has this week welcomed clarification from Professor Andrew McNaughton over press reports following a recent lecture by the Professor. 

Local people were alarmed several weeks ago following reported comments by the Chief Engineer of HS2 Ltd Professor Andrew McNaughton at a Rail Industry lecture in Derby. After the lecture, the Professor was reported in the press to have predicted that HS2 might one day run up to 30 trains an hour, that the Birmingham Interchange Station could have additional 'acceleration lines' of up to 14km long, and that a new city of up to 100,000 houses could be built on greenbelt land in the Meridan Gap.

Dan Byles, MP for North Warwickshire and Bedworth, welcomes latest improvement in local job statistics

Last week, Ireland officially went back into recession. In doing so they joined Italy, the Netherlands, Greece, Portugal, Spain and Belgium, all of whom are already in recession. Even Germany's economy shrank in the last quarter. The Eurozone as a whole has seen its growth forecast for 2012 fall from +0.5% to minus 0.3%, meaning the Eurozone will be in recession by the end of the year. It is against that backdrop that the Chancellor, George Osborne, gave his annual budget speech to Parliament last Wednesday. What was remarkable, given the economic woes still affecting our largest trading partners, was how well the UK is actually holding up. Independent forecasts expect the UK economy to do slightly better than we last thought, with growth of 0.8% this year rising to 2% growth next year. UK growth forecasts have been raised, while borrowing, unemployment and inflation are are all now predicted to be lower than expected. Considering our deficit is still higher than that of Greece, that is remarkable.

Constituents who have met me will know I often say that, other than getting a grip on the budget deficit, I believe the two most important people in the Cabinet are Iain Duncan Smith (who is usually known as IDS and is responsible for reforming welfare) and Michael Gove (who is responsible for reforming our schools). Let me explain why.