Government commitment to levelling up questioned following overseas rail deals

Grant Shapps, the Transport Secretary, on Wednesday announced a new deal with Israel which would see Crossrail International, owned by the DfT, help build a multi-billion-pound mass transit project in Tel Aviv

The same day, Transport for the North, which works to improve transport in areas including Yorkshire, revealed that it had lost almost £70 million in funding, laid off 34 staff, and closed its Leeds office after Westminster took control of the Northern Powerhouse Rail Project.

Mr Shapps yesterday penned a deal with Ukraine to help rebuild the country’s wartorn infrastructure, taking the UK’s support to Ukraine to almost £4 billion.

The package came as Boris Johnson once again declined to bring forward support for households facing skyrocketing fuel bills, saying "if we're paying in our energy bills for the evils of Vladimir Putin, the people of Ukraine are paying in their blood”.

Official data which reveals that only 5 per cent of the Department for Transport’s key rail officials are based in Yorkshire - with the rest working in London.

Senior Labour MPs last night questioned whether the Government’s focus was still on levelling up the North’s transport links.

The Department for Transport said any such criticisms were “wide of the mark” and that spending money and resources overseas has no impact on its commitment to UK transport.

Dan Jarvis, the former South Yorkshire Mayor said: “While these various international initiatives are welcome, DfT and the government’s attention needs to be firmly focused on the huge challenges we face here in the North of England.

“We’ve recently learned of the massive reduction in Transport for the North’s budget, huge concerns remain over the government’s commitment to investing in our rail network and the transformative funding promised for our buses vanished into thin air.”

Sources involved in levelling up discussions questioned why Mr Shapps had been signing international transport deals at a time of rail strikes and a delayed review into a mass transit system in Leeds.

Yesterday saw train drivers at another three companies have voted overwhelmingly for strike action in a dispute over pay.

It added fuel to speculation that Mr Shapps, who is not expected to remain in his role in the Truss administration, may be manoeuvring for another job.

One source pointed out that bilateral trade deals involving infrastructure and Ukraine are popular policies championed by the Foreign Secretary.

Government statistics revealed by the Labour Party showed that 45 of 905 civil servants working in the key Rail Directorate, which sets and makes decisions on rail priorities and spending for the UK, are based in Yorkshire.

“The Tories cannot be serious about powering up our regions, when decisions are still overwhelmingly taken from a desk in London,” said Louise Haigh, Labour’s Shadow Transport Secretary,

“For too long communities across the North have paid the price for decisions made far away from the people and places they affect.

“The result has been a decade of delays and broken promises on rail investment from this Conservative Government that has held Yorkshire back.

“The North needs more than window dressing – it needs a Labour government that listens to our communities, invest in our ambitious plan for rail, and transfer power to our proud regions.”

A DfT spokesperson said: “This criticism is way wide of the mark – we’re investing billions of pounds into northern transport, the most in a generation. This includes our £96bn Integrated Rail Plan for the North and Midlands as well as the injection of £1.4 billion into West and South Yorkshire to transform local transport networks.

“To ensure our decisions are rooted in the communities we serve we’ve opened new hubs in Birmingham and Leeds as part of a cross-Government drive to move 22,000 roles outside of London by 2030.

“We are fortunate to have some of the best transport experts in the world and it’s only right we help the Ukrainian people support their damaged infrastructure – this doesn’t impede our focus on domestic travel.”

Wednesday's announcement by Transport for the North saw it unveil a new business plan, with its chief executive Martin Tugwell telling The Yorkshire Post it has “not been an easy time” for TfN, which is now “smaller and leaner”.

The organisation is run by a board of Northern mayors and council leaders and had been given £75m of funding to draw up plans for Northern Powerhouse Rail.

The Government was accused of a “power grab” in November when it ditched the plans drawn up by TfN and took charge of the project itself, and will now have just £5.66m to provide support for the project in 2022/23.

Liz Truss has said that fully delivering Northern Powerhouse Rail in full is “absolutely crucial for the future of the North of England”, but stopped short of committing to the plans that would ensure that HS2’s lines would reach Leeds.

Mr Tugwell said TfN “needs to be humble enough” to recognise it will not deliver that project, but it will remain involved in the planning and ensure “the North’s voice continues to shape the detail”.

He added that it will still work with the Government to “act as one voice for the North of England to ensure that the region gets the investment in its transport network that the people who live and work here deserve.”