Government pledges £39bn Northern rail scheme will go ahead

The government has pledged that plans for a new £39bn rail link between Leeds and Manchester will go ahead.

The high speed cross rail is seen as a key part of the Northern Powerhouse project and was publicly backed by Boris Johnson on a recent visit to Manchester.

The commitment to the project came in Sajid Javid’s £13.8bn spending review.

Doubt has been cast on the future of the HS2 rail link between London and the North after the Government ordered a review into the project.

Sajid Javid

Earlier this week it was revealed that the scheme could be delayed by seven years and costs have spiralled by 40% to £88bn.

The transport secretary Grant Shapps announced that completion of the full northern section of HS2, to Manchester and Leeds is likely to be pushed back to 2040.

But the Chancellor of the Exchequer said in his speech to the House of Commons that the cross rail scheme will still go ahead.

Mr Javid said: “Better transport links across the country will be a crucial part of levelling up across the country.

“We’ve already allocated a total of £13 billion for better transport across the North.

“We will fund the Manchester to Leeds route of Northern Powerhouse Rail. And will set out further details the autumn.”

The NP11 which represents the 11 Local Enterprise Partnerships in the North of England welcomed the announcement.

Roger Marsh, chair of NP11 and the Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership, said: “To deliver an economy that is future-proof, it’s a no brainer that the North should be front and centre of plans for the UK’s prosperity and competitiveness after Brexit.

Roger Marsh

“The chancellor’s commitment to the Manchester to Leeds section of Northern Powerhouse Rail is welcome news and a good start towards helping to rebalance the UK’s economy. It’s also pleasing to hear funding committed for wider LEP priorities including town centre high-streets, local bus services and combating climate change.

“As business leaders have made clear in recent months, delivering both HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail in tandem with a City Centre station in Bradford, will be crucial to enabling the North to prosper in the decades ahead.

“The Chancellor referred to the need to kickstart the country’s infrastructure revolution, and together, these two transformational rail projects have the potential to make this happen.

“The Chancellor was also correct to set a high bar for funding major infrastructure projects.

“The ongoing Oakervee Review into HS2 provides an important opportunity to work with Government to identify ways the project can deliver even more for the North of England, while considering options to help control costs.”

However a leading think tank has poured doubt on the Government’s ability to deliver the project.

Luke Raikes from IPPR North said: “Today the government simply repeated a vague promise to invest in Northern transport, and has presented no plan or funding to do so.

“The government’s rhetoric on the North is a long way from the reality on the ground.

“Since the government first started talking about the Northern Powerhouse, the number of delayed and cancelled trains in the North has doubled. Meanwhile transport spending per person on London has increased by twice as much as in the North.”

“The government can’t expect people to believe the promises they’ve made to the North until they see spades in the ground, and transformational northern infrastructure taking shape.

“Today is yet another demonstration of why transport decisions need to be made in the North by the North. The government must let the North and regions across England take responsibility for their own affairs. Until they do so our country will remain the most unequal in the developed world, held back by severe poverty and inequality in every region – even in our overheating capital.”