Axing Northern Powerhouse Rail and HS2 would be false economy - The Yorkshire Post says

While by no means the only reason behind the nation’s financial challenges, it has been a key factor in creating a situation which has left new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his Chancellor Jeremy Hunt searching for tens of billions of pounds in spending cuts and tax rises to cover a fiscal black hole.

In such circumstances, it is understandable that capital spending on major infrastructure projects is under review.

However, as a powerful letter jointly signed by senior representatives of businesses and organisations responsible for more than 50,000 workers in this region today highlights, there is a severe danger of creating false economies by cancelling or curtailing projects designed to bring benefits for generations to come.

The Northern Powerhouse Rail project – promised as part of the 2019 Conservative manifesto, then dramatically watered down by last year’s Integrated Rail Plan before then being re-promised by Liz Truss – is reportedly at major risk.

Equally, hopes of HS2 ever reaching Yorkshire appear increasingly remote given that project is also being sized up for cuts and a study of how to connect its trains to Leeds is yet to even begin.

But as business leaders rightly point out, these are investments that if given the go-ahead will pay dividends for decades to come

These projects are not about allowing for the occasional fast train to London – it is about increasing network capacity and reliability and engineering a fully integrated public transport network that should be a minimum expectation for the North.

The search for savings should not be used as another excuse for failing to deliver for this region.