So I admit, as a North West MP and a Merseyside one at that, my views are coloured by the area I represent, and in this article I hope to bring this Merseyside and North West perspective to the HS2 debate, explaining the need for such a development - and in particular the need for better transport infrastructure to & from Liverpool.

You see, for Merseyside, such new transport links aren't a luxury they are a key enabler to the area's expansion. The potential is already here, the means to capitalise on that potential is not, and without significant development to transport links, both HS2 and the Northern Hub (links across the North), then this once in a life time chance to drive our economy forward, develop our natural assets and reposition ourselves as the 'Port of the North' might otherwise slip away.

It is time we fought our corner for economic growth. Time to develop our Port and waterways both for freight and passengers, and time we looked to expand our transport infrastructure, and if we want Liverpool to be a key destination on the HS2 line, then we must lobby for that too.

In the 1800's the Port of Liverpool had 40% of the world's good passing through it, the Custom House was the biggest contributor to the treasury and for times Liverpool was wealthier than London.

We need to have a vision for our area again. We need to capitalise on our unique selling point as a port and maximize the interest in Liverpool as a destination. Added to that, if we as a country want to hit our 'carbon' targets, then let's promote Liverpool's port and water ways as the means to do that.

Let's use Liverpool as central base for world imports and exports for the north of England and the midlands, so cutting down on mass movement of goods by road as cargo is docked in the south.

This is a time to be bold, to work out a 20, 30 & 50 year vision and strategy for our area, and instead of finding reasons why we can't do things we need to be looking at reasons why we can. We have a unique geographical position, we have the private enterprise to deliver, what we need now is the determination and passion to get behind a co-ordinated strategy and for our civic leaders to drive that vision forward.

My arguments aren't emotional ones, instead they are based on economic outcomes, outcomes which are just as necessary for the country as they are the North West. And for all intent and purposes High Speed 2 rail is meant to aide with the decentralisation of economic power away from the South East, and enable areas like the Midlands, the North East and North West to become much more attractive to investors so growing their economy.

I understand the argument about brain drain from the northwest should we have a faster link to the south, and there is truth in that argument, but that 'drain' is already happening, we already lose a lot of our talent to the south, hence the importance of a combined local strategy that fits in with the transport infrastructure, otherwise we'll continue to lose our young talent, HS2 or not.

In a recent question to the Secretary of State for Transport Philip Hammond, I asked about the potential economic benefit to the North West, and in the reply he estimated that the initial London- West Midlands phase could be worth £5.06B, but the full Y shaped extension to Manchester could be worth £44B over the appraisal period. That said, these are estimates, so I checked past government forecast figures for High Speed 1, which predicted growth of £500M to the local economy, as it turned out those figures were wrong by a factor of 20, and High Speed 1 brought £10B to the local economy.

Now, if you were wanting to be pessimistic, you might say such inaccuracy could easily have resulted in an over-exaggeration by the Secretary of State of the potential benefits to the NW, however, if we compare countries around the world who've invested in High Speed rail and these include: France, Germany, Spain, China, Japan, and India and America have announced their plans, all showed significant growth along the line: from Lyon creating 20,000 jobs and 5.3 million square foot of office space to Japan who's comparison data show an increase in jobs, construction, population and land value in all the cities which had a station.

For Merseyside, however, the potential to grow is even greater than the cities above whose growth was linked purely to the transport infrastructure. Liverpool could benefit from a double whammy of faster links and development of its untapped assets. These 'assets' have already been documented by the TMP (The Mersey Partnership) in their Economic Review and listed as: Tourism, Port expansion , Low Carbon and Knowledge economy - and all require fast reliable sustainable transport links which at present we do not have, even worse, capacity issues are looming.

For instance tourism for our region is flourishing. Official figures for 2009 recorded 48 million UK day-visitors and in 2010 Liverpool became the 6th most popular destination in the UK with projected tourism figures set to reach 55 million by 2013. And with over 13% of all visitors staying in the city coming from London and the South East the city has a basic requirement for a frequent high speed service from London to Liverpool.

The Liverpool SuperPort development for freight, lead by private investors Peel , set to develop a £300 million in-river berth, which will increase the capacity at the port from 700,000 containers per annum to 3 million creating over 4,000 new jobs. This will expand the need for warehousing, storage and logistics, in fact Stobart have announced a 100 acre expansion to their current operation at Widnes that will generate an additional 4,000 jobs and create a facility at the site highly attractive to major retailers for national and regional distribution purposes.

These plans, and potential for growth, are transformational. They are not pipe-dreams but realities waiting to happen, with private companies wanting to deliver them and government backing as Enterprise Zone. The International Trade Centre on Wirral is to turn a 64 acre site into the home for over 1,000 international companies to showcase their products to UK markets. It is intended that this centre will act as stimulant for inward investment into the manufacturing and logistics sectors. But without the relevant transport infrastructure, the High Speed 2 and the Northern Hub, this growth won't be possible.

High Speed 2 is meant to be about uniting the country and spreading wealth and opportunities to areas that desperately need it. My only concern is that it happens sooner rather than later and that we have a link across to all the northern cities.