Latest news with #transportinvestment
The Guardian
11-06-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Reeves confirms extra £3.5bn for TransPennine route in bid to improve railways across England
Rachel Reeves committed to building a better railway across the north of England in a review that promised more transport investment around the country but left London disappointed. The chancellor said the government's plans to 'take forward our ambitions for northern powerhouse rail' would be published shortly, and confirmed £3.5bn more funding to continue upgrades on the TransPennine routebetween Liverpool and Leeds. Reeves signalled that the north and the regions would be the big beneficiaries, having already announced £15bn for city regions to develop local tram, rail and bus projects over the next five years. Reeves also announced that she was publishing the review of the Treasury green book – the spending rules that have been seen as prioritising investment in the most populous and productive areas, namely London and the south-east. She said it would 'support place-based business cases and ensure no region has Treasury guidance wielded against them'. London was granted one major request, a longer-term funding settlement of £2bn over four years. But the mayor, Sadiq Khan, said he was disappointed by the lack of any commitment on its infrastructure plans. Reeves also announced £2.5bn to enable the 'continued delivery' of East West Rail, the line between Oxford and Cambridge. Railways in Wales will also get another £445m investment over 10 years. About £750m a year will go on bus services, including extending the £3 bus fare cap from the end of 2025 until March 2027. Another £25bn over four years will fund the continued construction of HS2 between London Euston and Birmingham. Northern leaders have been waiting for the new government to commit to new railways across the north since the scrapping of the northern leg of HS2 by Rishi Sunak in 2023. The detail of the northern powerhouse rail investment will be published in the infrastructure strategy next week, but are expected to set out plans to fund a new line west of Manchester Piccadilly to the city's airport, part of the scrapped HS2 route, and upgrades that would massively increase speed and capacity on the Liverpool-Manchester route. A new station at Bradford is also in the frame which, along with the TransPennine upgrade budget confirmed in the spending review, and future electrification and line works to Sheffield and Hull, would eventually create a much faster and reliable line across the north of England. The Northern Powerhouse Partnership, a business-led thinktank and advocacy group, said the commitment was 'a major step forward for growth across the north'. In the capital, however, Khan welcomed the multi-year financial deal for Transport for London (TfL) but added: 'It's also disappointing that there is no commitment today from the Treasury to invest in the new infrastructure London needs. Projects such as extending the Docklands Light Railway not only deliver economic growth across the country, but also tens of thousands of new affordable homes and jobs for Londoners. Sign up to Business Today Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning after newsletter promotion He added: 'The way to level up other regions will never be to level down London.' Business groups in the capital were more blunt. John Dickie, the chief executive of the BusinessLDN group, said: 'It looks like London has been left short-changed. 'The lack of certainty around delivering shovel-ready projects like the DLR to Thamesmead and Bakerloo line extension that could accelerate growth, create new jobs and open up sites for tens of thousands of new homes is baffling.' The boss of TfL, Andy Lord, said the settlement would allow it to complete the introduction of new trains on the Piccadilly line and DLR, and 'progress discussions' on new Bakerloo line trains but TfL would have to make 'difficult decisions and we will need to continue to carefully prioritise investment and control our costs'. While capital spending on transport increased, the Department for Transport has had to accept some of the bigger real-term cuts in government for resource, or day-to-day spending. The budget will fall 5% in real terms over the next four years, with savings to be found through the creation of Great British Railways, higher rail fare income and making the DfT a 'smaller, more agile' department, according to Treasury documents.
The Independent
09-06-2025
- Business
- The Independent
North missed £140bn of transport investment during last government
The North of England would have received an extra £140 billion in transport investment under the previous government if funding levels had been the same as in London, research has claimed. Independent analysis by think tank the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) looked at Treasury figures between 2009/10 and 2022/23, during which time the Conservatives were in power. It reached the figure, which it said was enough to build seven Elizabeth Lines, by considering the amount of spending per person across the different English regions over that period. While England as a whole saw £592 spent per person each year, London received double that amount with £1,183 spent per person, the IPPR said. The entire North region saw £486 spent per person, with the North East and North West seeing £430 and £540 spent per person respectively. This amounted to £140 billion of missed investment for the North, more than the entire £83 billion estimate of capital spending on transport in the region since 1999/2000, according to the analysis. The region with the lowest amount of investment over the period was the East Midlands with just £355 spent per person. Among the most divisive transport investment projects for the previous government was the HS2 rail project, which was axed north of Birmingham in October 2023. Then-prime minister Rishi Sunak pledged to 'reinvest every single penny, £36 billion, in hundreds of new transport projects in the North and the Midlands', including improvements to road, rail and bus schemes. Earlier this week, Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced a £15.6 billion package for mayoral authorities to use on public transport projects across the North and Midlands ahead of the spending review. It is expected to include funding to extend the metros in Tyne and Wear, Greater Manchester and the West Midlands, along with a renewed tram network in South Yorkshire and a new mass transit system in West Yorkshire. Marcus Johns, senior research fellow at IPPR North, said: 'Today's figures are concrete proof that promises made to the North over the last decade were hollow. It was a decade of deceit. 'We are 124 years on from the end of Queen Victoria's reign, yet the North is still running on infrastructure built during her rein – while our transport chasm widens. 'This isn't London bashing – Londoners absolutely deserve investment. But £1,182 per person for London and £486 for northerners? The numbers don't lie – this isn't right. 'This Government have begun to restore fairness with their big bet on transport cash for city leaders. 'They should continue on this journey to close this investment gap in the upcoming spending review and decades ahead.' Former Treasury minister Lord Jim O'Neill said: 'Good governance requires the guts to take a long-term approach, not just quick fixes. So the Chancellor is right in her focus on the UK's long-standing supply-side weaknesses – namely our woeful productivity and weak private and public investment. 'Backing major infrastructure is the right call, and this spending review is the right time for the Chancellor to place a big bet on northern growth and begin to close this investment chasm. 'But it's going to take more than commitments alone – she'll need to set out a transparent framework for delivery.' Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, said: 'For too long, the North of England has been treated as a poor relation to the South when it comes to government spending on transport infrastructure, and this analysis makes stark reading – exposing the vast scale of underfunding over many years. 'The Chancellor's announcement of £2.5 billion funding for transport in Greater Manchester will be a game-changer for our city-region, enabling us to expand the Bee Network, and deliver the UK's first, zero emission, integrated, public transport system by 2030. 'We have also made the case for a new Liverpool-Manchester railway, which would further rebalance infrastructure investment, and could boost the UK economy by £90 billion by 2040.'
The Independent
08-06-2025
- Business
- The Independent
North missed £140bn of transport investment over last government, research finds
The North of England would have received an extra £140 billion in transport investment under the previous government if funding levels had been the same as in London, research has claimed. Independent analysis by think tank the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) looked at Treasury figures between 2009/10 and 2022/23, during which time the Conservatives were in power. It reached the figure, which it said was enough to build seven Elizabeth Lines, by considering the amount of spending per person across the different English regions over that period. While England as a whole saw £592 spent per person each year, London received double that amount with £1,183 spent per person, the IPPR said. The entire North region saw £486 spent per person, with the North East and North West seeing £430 and £540 spent per person respectively. This amounted to £140 billion of missed investment for the North, more than the entire £83 billion estimate of capital spending on transport in the region since 1999/2000, according to the analysis. The region with the lowest amount of investment over the period was the East Midlands with just £355 spent per person. Among the most divisive transport investment projects for the previous government was the HS2 rail project, which was axed north of Birmingham in October 2023. Then-prime minister Rishi Sunak pledged to 'reinvest every single penny, £36 billion, in hundreds of new transport projects in the North and the Midlands', including improvements to road, rail and bus schemes. Earlier this week, Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced a £15.6 billion package for mayoral authorities to use on public transport projects across the North and Midlands ahead of the spending review. It is expected to include funding to extend the metros in Tyne and Wear, Greater Manchester and the West Midlands, along with a renewed tram network in South Yorkshire and a new mass transit system in West Yorkshire. Marcus Johns, senior research fellow at IPPR North, said: 'Today's figures are concrete proof that promises made to the North over the last decade were hollow. It was a decade of deceit. 'We are 124 years on from the end of Queen Victoria's reign, yet the North is still running on infrastructure built during her rein – while our transport chasm widens. 'This isn't London bashing – Londoners absolutely deserve investment. But £1,182 per person for London and £486 for northerners? The numbers don't lie – this isn't right. 'This Government have begun to restore fairness with their big bet on transport cash for city leaders. 'They should continue on this journey to close this investment gap in the upcoming spending review and decades ahead.' Former Treasury minister Lord Jim O'Neill said: 'Good governance requires the guts to take a long-term approach, not just quick fixes. So the Chancellor is right in her focus on the UK's long-standing supply-side weaknesses – namely our woeful productivity and weak private and public investment. 'Backing major infrastructure is the right call, and this spending review is the right time for the Chancellor to place a big bet on northern growth and begin to close this investment chasm. 'But it's going to take more than commitments alone – she'll need to set out a transparent framework for delivery.'
Daily Mail
07-06-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE 'Rachel Reeves looks exhausted. She can't deliver': Labour ministers drip poison to DAN HODGES on why the Chancellor is doomed... and tell the woeful reason she thinks it's all gone wrong
It was the expression that spoke for a nation. As Rachel Reeves delivered her speech on new transport investment, workers at the Mellor Bus factory in Rochdale appeared less than impressed. And when she embarked on a lecture about the Treasury Green Book, one increasingly desperate employee looked as if he was contemplating making a break for it and hurling himself into the River Roch. Asked at the end of her address what they thought of Reeves's announcement, one of his colleagues simply responded: 'My legs ache.'
BBC News
05-06-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Lack of Devon and Cornwall transport funding criticised
The government has been accused of leaving Devon and Cornwall behind in terms of transport Rachel Reeves announced £15.6bn of funding for transport projects across parts of England including Greater Manchester, the Midlands, West England and Yorkshire on and business leaders based in Devon and Cornwall have criticised the government for overlooking the region after no money was earmarked for projects in either Department for Transport (DfT) said it was committed to delivering infrastructure that would boost the whole country. 'Underfunded services' Leigh Frost, leader of Cornwall Council, said the county's roadwork of more than 4,500 miles (7,242km) would have to be maintained with limited Liberal Democrat councillor said: "Our residents deserve a reliable, affordable, and integrated public transport system."Instead, we're left to struggle with making the Cornish pound stretch further to support our underfunded services, while other areas receive the lion's share of investment."Ben Maguire, Lib Dem MP for North Cornwall, said the county had "yet again been overlooked" by the government and the area deserved much better."We've had promises of 'levelling up', but this £15bn plan doesn't offer a single penny for our region," Mr Maguire added. Lib Dem MP for St Ives Andrew George accused the government of targeting "handpicked mayoral zones" with its £15.6bn of George added: "So we're expected to believe this is a politically neutral decision based on need?"Cornwall's Chamber of Commerce said transport consistently ranked as the top priority for businesses in the county, but said there was still not enough support from the Brown, the chamber's chief executive, said Cornwall was being left behind."Our businesses struggle daily with connectivity issues that limit growth potential," he said. "While metro mayors across England receive billions for trams and mass transit, Cornwall's economy continues to be hampered by inadequate bus services and rail connections that fail to meet business needs." 'Languishing behind' The funding announcement also received criticism in Smith, Conservative MP for South West Devon, said she was "deeply disappointed" that no money had been given to Devon or Cornwall."Anyone living in our corner of the UK will know that our transport infrastructure languishes behind the rest of the nation," Ms Smith said."I have warned before that the South West risks becoming Labour's forgotten region. It seems this remains true." 'Pushing our government' Jayne Kirkham, Labour MP for Truro and Falmouth, defended the government, saying the funding was focused on city said she and Perran Moon, Labour MP for Camborne and Redruth, had been told more help was expected in Spending Review due to be set out by the chancellor on 11 June."We will be pushing and pushing and pushing our government to make sure we get as much as we can for Cornwall, because we know how much we need it here," Ms Kirkham DfT said Wednesday's announcement would help more than a quarter of England's population get better transport infrastructure.A spokesperson added decisions on future transport spending would be announced as part of the Spending Review."We are committed to delivering transport infrastructure that will boost growth and opportunity across the whole country, as part of our 'Plan for Change'," the spokesperson said."This includes investing in Cornwall – where this year alone we are already providing £10m towards better bus services, up to £48m for highways and local transport maintenance and £1.1m to enable better walking, wheeling and cycling opportunities."
