Disgraceful disparity over North’s transport funding remains – The Yorkshire Post says
THE disgraceful discrepancy in transport funding between our region and the rest of the country laid bare today is indefensible and demands urgent action from the Government to give us a fair deal.
It is shameful that each person in Yorkshire will have £2,389 less spent on them for transport than their counterparts in London unless investment in the Northern Powerhouse goes ahead.
No less shocking is the fact that if this region had been funded at the same level as the capital over the past decade, it would have received £66bn extra.
These are the Government’s own figures, as scrutinised by IPPR North, which means that there can be no wriggling out of responsibility by ministers, nor attempts to pass the buck.
This spending gap has grown wider over the past 10 years, which is disturbing because over that period the north has lobbied hard for more equitable funding.
The figures suggest that this has effectively been ignored. That has to change. There is no possible justification for Yorkshire to be starved of investment in transport, let alone on this scale.
Boris Johnson was taken on trust when he came north, promised to fund transformative new rail links across the Pennines and made encouraging remarks about granting devolved powers.
It is imperative that he now follows up on those promises and acts to give the north the transport funding it needs.
What has been happening is not only grossly unfair, but damaging to our region’s prosperity, which is intolerable.