Funding ‘envelope’ for CP6 cut by £1 billion
Rail Network Enhancements Pipeline update overdue
Only East West Rail committed in Spending Review
Industry in dark over future workload
In a written reply on 30 November, Rail Minister Chris Heaton-Harris revealed that the Chancellor’s November 2020 Spending Review had cut Network Rail’s enhancements budget for Control Period 6 (CP6, 2019-24) from £10.4 billion to £9.4 billion. Mr Heaton-Harris emphasised that ‘Network Rail’s operations, maintenance and renewals budgets have not been changed as a result of Spending Review 2020: work-banks will continue to be based on the five-year regulatory funding settlement for 2019-2024’.
In previous Control Periods, Network Rail’s enhancements projects were listed in the regulatory determination with budgeted costs. However, following the classification of Network Rail as a government body, the approach to setting future enhancements funding changed radically.
In 2019, a funding envelope for CP6 was agreed by the Treasury and the Department for Transport, together with a list of 58 potential projects – the so-called Rail Network Enhancements Pipeline (RNEP). This was published by DfT in October 2019 with a commitment to an annual update.
