Bring new national infrastructure bank to a Yorkshire town to boost 'renaissance' for the North, Chancellor is told

Chancellor Mr Sunak announced during the Spending Review today that the new centre, which will be based in the North, was to catalyse private investment in projects across the UK as well as reforming how infrastructure projects are delivered.

Mr Sunak told MPs: “We’re publishing today a comprehensive new national infrastructure strategy.

“To help finance our plans, I can also announce we will establish a new UK infrastructure bank.

“Headquartered in the North of England, the bank will work with the private sector to finance major new investment projects across the UK – starting this spring.”

And he said that as a Yorkshire MP he would “of course be sympathetic to the idea of putting the bank in Yorkshire”.

But after Labour MP for Huddersfield Barry Sheerman suggested it should be in his town, Mr Sunak said he had been “slightly beaten to the punch over the weekend” by Shipley Tory MP Philip Davies, who had asked for it to be placed in Bradford.

He said: “In any case, I’ll happily hear his thoughts.”

Speaking to The Yorkshire Post Jake Berry, the former Northern Powerhouse Minister and leader of the Northern Research Group of Tory backbench MPs, said that Conservative MPs would agree that the new bank should be in a town rather than a city.

Mr Berry said: “While we may disagree about where in the North exactly this should go, I think you would find agreement across Conservative colleagues that it should go to a town, whether that'd be a town in Yorkshire, Lancashire, Merseyside, Cheshire, Cumbria or the North East.

“I think that you would find broad agreement because of course, the whole point of moving things like the infrastructure bank to the North, is so it can get under the skin of the people that it's designed to serve, and for far too long there's been a single conversation across governments - for 50 years - about cities and how we can make cities thrive.”

Colne Valley Conservative MP and NRG member Jason McCartney said: “If you look back through my parliamentary questions, I've been calling for the relocation of Government departments to Huddersfield for many, many years.”

He added: “This is really important, the city's are doing well, we've got Channel 4 coming to Leeds, Conservative Headquarters are coming to Leeds, we've got the big investments around the Leeds railway station, but this is an opportunity for the towns of the North to get their fair share of this real focus now on the northern agenda.”

Mr Berry added: “It is amazing that cities like Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, have seen an amazing renaissance over that period. However, where the investment is needed now is in towns, and particularly in their infrastructure.

“So let's put this bank in a town where it can get under the hopes and wants and needs, under the skin of the people locally.”