£15bn transport pledge ahead of Autumn Statement

THE Government has announced plans to invest £800m in road transport schemes that will create 600 jobs in the region.

It is part of a £15bn road investment programme across England, which includes 84 schemes that were previously unannounced.

Two key parts of that programme are designed to drive forward the Northern Powerhouse vision, by completing the smart motorway along the entire length of the M62 from Manchester to Leeds, together with improvements to transpennine capacity from Manchester to Sheffield. The Government says this will create the first increase in transpennine capacity since 1971.

In total, £1.5bn will be used to add an extra lane onto key motorways to turn them into smart motorways, boosting connectivity between London, Birmingham, Manchester and Yorkshire.

In making the announcement, Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin said that “roads are key to our nation’s prosperity”.

He said: “Today I am setting out the biggest, boldest and most far-reaching roads programme for decades. It will dramatically improve our road network and unlock Britain’s economic potential.”

The North West ‘s road investment programme will see £170m invested on the A57, A628 and A628 trans-Pennine route, including a bypass for the village of Mottram.

Alongside that, a feasibility study will look at building a trans-Pennine tunnel to address the strategic gap between Sheffield and Manchester.

There is funding to upgrade the A5036 Princess Way, which links Liverpool’s ports to the motorway network , and to upgrade the M53 to a smart motorway to ease journeys into Birkenhead and support the Wirral Waters development.

Further investment on the southern access to Manchester will join up previously announced schemes to provide better access to the city and to Manchester Airport.

There will also be strategic studies to examine the case for dualling the A66 and A69, to further improve trans-Pennine capacity and connections in the north of England, and to look at long-term options for capacity around the north and west of Manchester to make sure the M60 does not become a barrier to the further growth of the city.

The road investment strategy, which has the twin aims of “keeping the population connected and the economy growing” also contains measures to spend £100m to improve cycling provision at 200 key locations across the network, create a £300m environmental fund to mitigate carbon emission and reduce the number of people affected by serious noise by 250,000, and invest £100m to unlock future growth and housing developments.

The announcement comes at the start of a key week for the Government with the Autumn Statement due on Wednesday.

TheBusinessDesk.com’s North West coverage of the Autumn Statement will be brought to readers in association with professional services firm Grant Thornton.

Welcoming the news on transport spending, and previewing Wednesday’s statement, Carl Williams, North West managing partner at Grant Thornton said: “George Osborne lit the devolutionary in fuse in the summer so we are looking for next steps.  There’s some scope for reform of business rates – a higher percentage retained in the regions would mean that profits made in the North could potentially be reinvested here.

“The idea of elected mayors also holds attractions. A mayor of a combined authority may well be more influential than any single MP – a powerful advocate for business and on-going infrastructure investment.  Talking to the civic leadership would also be simplified. It would speak with a single voice, rather than the situation we have now where a business like ours has conversations with, for example, Liverpool, Manchester and Leeds.”
 
Andy Wood, managing partner of Grant Thornton in Yorkshire, added: “I’m from Bury myself and enjoy the friendly rivalry across the Pennines but it’s in everyone’s interest to get behind the proposals. We are more powerful working together than against each other. 

“Transport is the key to making it happen and the high-speed HS3 rail link in the north of England is the game changer.  It’s a long term vision and, rather like the Channel Tunnel, requires a commitment that goes beyond any single government.

“We’d like to see more detail from the Chancellor. Our own research has shown that businesses believe that to make the Northern Powerhouse a reality there also needs to be more focus on skills training, international air routes from regional airports and improved inter-city road links in the North.”