Bradford leaders demand Northern Powerhouse Rail U-turn after missing evidence revelation

Axed plans to build a new Northern Powerhouse Rail high-speed line via Bradford must be reconsidered after it was revealed key evidence was not assessed, council bosses in the city have demanded.

The Department for Transport published a technical annexe to the Integrated Rail Plan earlier this week which reveals the full wider economic benefit of building the line were not considered in making the decision to scrap the plan in favour of a cheaper and shorter option.

Council leader Susan Hinchliffe said she will make the case to the Transport Select Committee inquiry into the IRP next week that the proposal should be put back on the table.

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The Government’s technical annexe assessed the value-for-money of the full NPR route via Bradford as “poor” - but admitted “it has not been possible to fully assess impacts on the wider economy, particularly those associated with households and businesses changing location in response to the investment”.

Bradford Council says the Northern Powerhouse Rail project must be reconsidered.Bradford Council says the Northern Powerhouse Rail project must be reconsidered.
Bradford Council says the Northern Powerhouse Rail project must be reconsidered.

Coun Hinchliffe said: “An independent study of the 34 largest cities outside of London has just proven what we have been saying for years: Bradford is Britain’s biggest levelling up opportunity."We’re the fifth largest metropolitan district in the country but the Bradford district has been left off the mainline rail network meaning our great people and brilliant businesses are left with second rate rail connections to Manchester, Leeds and London.

“Many of our plans - which have been years in the making - are based around creating the 21st century through train station our district deserves and the wider Northern Powerhouse Rail project, which the Prime Minister personally promised to deliver.

“The Government has missed a golden opportunity to make an investment which would have repaid itself many times over by unlocking a regeneration zone in Bradford city centre which is three times larger than Canary Wharf, creates 27,000 new jobs and delivers £30bn in economic benefits for our district over a decade.

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"Now we find out that the Department for Transport failed to do any detailed analysis of the long-term economic benefits of investing in the Bradford district and investing in the North.”

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She added: “This government has described levelling up as its central mission.

“How can levelling up be the central mission of this government, if it’s not even analysing the economic payback of where it invests money?

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“We look forward to making our case to the Transport Select Committee’s inquiry and asking the Government to look again at its deeply flawed Integrated Rail Plan, so that the proper economic analysis can be done, and we can get on with the job of levelling up the Bradford district and the rest of our great cities by giving the north the rail network it deserves.”

Julian Jackson, Assistant Director of Planning, Transportation and Highways at Bradford Council, added: “The success of our country, our towns and cities and our transport network is reliant on people making evidence-based decisions.

"We now find out that the evidence base is missing when it comes to making the most crucial transport investment decisions in northern rail infrastructure for many generations.

“Bradford’s independent economic analysis is essential to understanding the long-term impacts of investing in Bradford and North, something which has been overlooked by the DfT. In light of the technical publication by the DfT, the Government should reconsider the recommendations of the Integrated Rail Plan so that we can deliver the transport infrastructure we need to level up Bradford and to level up the North.”

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The Department for Transport has described the technical annexe published earlier this week as a summary of the potential options considered for the Integrated Rail Plan.

A spokesperson said: “This technical document - which is based on sources including Transport for the North’s own work on Northern Powerhouse Rail - simply summarises how the options considered could impact things like capacity and connectivity, decarbonisation, affordability and value for money.”

The technical report was strongly criticised at a Transport for the North board earlier this week for lacking in detail. But the DfT said those remarks were an "oversimplification" that "ignore the many benefits our £96bn Integrated Rail Plan will deliver - better connectivity, greener travel and quicker improvements for passengers".

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