It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Murray. As a civil engineer, nothing gives me greater pleasure than the opportunity to hear a speech about a bridge. I thank my right hon. Friend the Member for Tatton for raising this important issue and appreciate the work of the hon. Member for Weaver Vale as a shadow Minister. The Government's central mission is to level up the United Kingdom by spreading opportunity more equally throughout the country. We have already made good progress through initiatives such as rolling out gigabit broadband, introducing a fairer school funding formula, opening freeports, increasing the national living wage, recruiting more police officers and creating local mayors with powers devolved from Westminster. The levelling-up White Paper aims to reverse geographical inequalities and improve productivity, pay, jobs and living standards by growing the private sector in lagging areas and promoting a more equal spread of opportunities and public services. The £2.6 billion UK shared prosperity fund will trailblaze a new approach to investment and empower local communities to level up and build pride in their place. Cheshire West and Chester was allocated almost £13 million of funding through the UK shared prosperity fund, with more than £13 million also allocated to Cheshire East. The levelling-up fund provides crucial capital investment in local infrastructure throughout the United Kingdom, including £232 million awarded to 12 successful projects in the north-west of England—the highest funding award for any English region in round 1. We are investing in transport infrastructure with over £470 million allocated in recent years to areas such as Tatton and Weaver Vale. The Department is also delivering a smart motorway between junction 16 for Stoke and junction 19 for Knutsford in Cheshire, along with significant funding for rail infrastructure improvement.