Business leaders welcome Hammond’s Northern Powerhouse investment

Chancellor Philip Hammond’s Budget announcement of investment across the Northern Powerhouse, including a £30m plan to trial improvements to mobile and digital connectivity on trains across the TransPennine, has been broadly welcomed by business leaders in the North West.

A £1.7bn transport fund was announced for city regions to be spent by mayors. Further devolution power for Greater Manchester was confirmed, with plans to develop a local Industrial Strategy.

The government will provide a £243m allocation from the Transforming Cities Fund and will continue to work with Transport for Greater Manchester to explore options for the future beyond the fund, including land value capture.

Hammond confirmed that £300m will go towards ensuring High Speed infrastructure could accommodate future Northern Powerhouse and Midlands rail services. Transport for the North and Midlands Connect will work up the case for these services.

This will enable faster services between Liverpool and Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds and York, as well as to Leicester and other places in the East Midlands and London. It will also enable future services between Liverpool and Leeds to go via Manchester Piccadilly station.

Other than when talking about the TransPennine investment, Yorkshire was not mentioned at all in the budget delivery when the Chancellor talked about Northern Powerhouse investment; instead the region lost out to investment in the North East.

However, Hammond said: “This proves to the people of Britain that we are driving prosperity across the UK.”

Bob Ward, North West senior partner for EY, commented on what the Budget means for the North.

He said: “The £1.7bn Transforming Cities Fund to improve transport does underline the Government’s commitment to improving connectivity across the Northern Powerhouse.

“The North of Tyne devolution deal also gives credibility to the Government’s Northern Powerhouse agenda with important decisions about what is best for the North being made by those who live here.

“The Transforming Cities Fund will finally give metro mayors power and means to do their jobs and support their mission to drive economic growth and investment in local communities.

“It will also help reduce red tape which will expedite decisions on housing and infrastructure – key to attracting businesses and talent.

“The fact that half of the Fund is allocated to the six combined authorities with elected metro mayors puts those cities that have agreed devolution deals in a strong position, particularly Liverpool and Manchester, as the per capita allocation gives them a larger share of the pot.

“However, it is striking that those which haven’t agreed deals are left in competition with each other for the remainder of the pot.”

Chris Oglesby, chief executive of Bruntwood, regional property company and a board member of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership – an influential group of Northern business and city leaders – said: “Increasing investment in research and development spending as part of the government’s new Industrial Strategy is to be welcomed and we look forward to seeing further details for critical sectors such as life sciences when the White Paper is unveiled next week.

“We are encouraged by the focus on investing in future technologies that will shape our future, and look forward to launching our new technology incubators in Manchester and Leeds in the coming months, which will support innovation in artificial intelligence and the data economy – two growth areas for the UK highlighted by the Prime Minister this week.”

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