Cancellation of HS2’s northern leg raises questions over infrastructure approach

But the cancellation in itself has posed many questions about the economic rationale of reducing HS2 to a rump of a line.

MPs have said building HS2 between London and Birmingham but not extending the line to Manchester will be “very poor value for money”.

The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has highlighted “many uncertainties” in the Government’s assessment that it was better to complete Phase 1 of the project than cancel the whole high-speed railway programme.

HS2 only makes sense when the North is taken into account and potential will remain in the ground.

There is no clarity as to what the impact is going to be on other rail projects dependent on the cancelled phases. Places like Leeds and Manchester are left in limbo. Major cities that can’t plan ahead when it comes to their transport infrastructure.

For all the talk of Network North, the Government has failed to convince people in the North that they want to improve transport.

It increasingly looks like the Government is simply salting the earth - a move that will set the country back generations when it comes to bridging economic inequalities.

Talking of setting the country back, the failure to harness the evident potential of Doncaster Sheffield Airport (DSA) shows how poorly Britain’s infrastructure has been utilised.

The Mayor of South Yorkshire is right to insist that spending £138m to reopen the airport is the correct thing to do. Both DSA and HS2 show there is a need for a cross-party national infrastructure plan in this country.