Back On Track: Business leaders sign open letter to Chancellor

Nearly 70 business leaders have today signed an open letter in The Yorkshire Post challenging Chancellor George Osborne to honour pre-election promises to upgrade the region’s railways.
George OsborneGeorge Osborne
George Osborne

The letter - the centrepiece of this newspaper’s Back On Track campaign - is due to be raised at transport questions in the House of Commons today as concerns grow about delays to the electrification of the Leeds to Manchester and Sheffield to London routes.

The signatories are unconvinced by the Government’s insistence that this is just a temporary “pause”, despite David Cameron accusing opponents of “griping” when the issue was raised at Prime Minister’s Questions for a second successive week.

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“The North-South divide is in danger of becoming a gaping chasm,” said Steven Leigh, head of policy at Mid Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce, who fears that London-based projects like Crossrail 2 are taking precedence over schemes in the North.

The letter to Mr Osborne coincides with Sir Peter Hendy, London’s former Transport Commissioner, beginning work today as the chairman of Network Rail.

His first job is to conduct a major review of the organisation’s £38bn rail investment programme after the cost of a number of schemes escalated.

However, this region’s business leaders are determined to maintain the pressure after being repeatedly promised prior to the election that the electrification plans were on track because they are so integral to the Chancellor’s Northern Powerhouse vision.

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Paul Hamer, chief executive of Leeds-based infrastructure firm WYG, was among those to say that the “clear ambition” of the Northern Powerhouse must now be matched by funding.

“Being connected on a local, regional and national level is absolutely fundamental to creating a Northern Powerhouse,” he said.

His view was backed by Jonathan Oxley, chairman of the Institute of Directors in Yorkshire, who said the current rail infrastructure “isn’t up to the job”.

Concerns began to be raised in December that the TransPennine project - the centrepiece of Mr Osborne’s 2011 Autumn Statement - would miss its 2018 completion date despite work taking place to upgrade the section linking Liverpool with Manchester.

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This was repeatedly denied by the Prime Minister, who told MPs yesterday that he only recently became aware of the problems.

In response to a question from Bradford South MP Judith Cummins, Mr Cameron said: “No, I was told about this after the election as we’ve set out before.

“The point is now we need to do everything that we can to get to the bottom of the overspending and the engineering difficulties that there are...I think instead of griping and making these grievances the whole House should get behind this programme and make sure we got on with it.”

Sir Peter’s review is due to be completed in the Autumn. It will also determine the fate of other routes earmarked for electrification, like the line from Leeds through to Harrogate and York.

Gerald Jennings, president of Leeds Chamber of Commerce, said: “We would hope to see progress and an unpausing of investment.”