MPs blow horn over London transport cash ‘bias’

The Government has been challenged to do more to ensure money is spent fairly after debate over the equity of spending was “stoked” by a report in December claiming 84 per cent of new infrastructure funding was for projects in the capital and South East.

West Yorkshire transport authority Metro has backed today’s call by the Transport Select Committee – which echoes demands in the Yorkshire Post’s Fair Deal campaign – and urged Ministers to put right a “legacy of discrepancy” which has seen schemes in this region stall while London goes ahead with tube upgrades and the £16bn Crossrail route.

The Government insists claims of a bias in transport funding are unfair because some schemes have wider impacts. But today’s report says: “There remain concerns that Department for Transport [DfT] spending, particularly on infrastructure projects, is unduly focused on London and south-east England.”

MPs accepted that it was difficult to calculate how spending is distributed between regions, but added: “We consider that the DfT could do more to ensure that its expenditure plans involve a fair allocation of resources across the nation.

“We recommend that the DfT’s next annual report and accounts includes a more comprehensive analysis of regional spend, including a fuller explanation of how its figures are arrived at.”

There has long been concern from politicians and businesses in Yorkshire that the region has been starved of cash for key transport schemes, with projects like Supertram in Leeds cancelled and vital road improvements such as upgrading the A63 in Hull denied funding until 2015 at the earliest.

The coalition insists it has given priority to infrastructure projects – which can create or preserve significant numbers of jobs and unlock other developments – when deciding where spending should be cut, and last year approved a string of upgrades in the region.

But a report by think tank IPPR North in December analysed commitments from the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement and discovered 84 per cent of infrastructure spending was aimed at London and the South East.

Metro director general Kieran Preston said: “With governments, including our own, recognising that investing in large infrastructure projects such as transport schemes can stimulate regeneration, we have received approval for a number of important projects recently.

“However, if our region is to be able to play its full part in the country’s ongoing economic growth, we need further investment in transport schemes such as the first stage of the New Generation Trolleybus network, Trans-Pennine electrification and Network Rail’s Northern Hub.

“This would start to counter the legacy of discrepancy, highlighted by the Transport Committee in this report, which last year saw Government transport spending in London at £744 per head, almost triple the £276 per head spent on transport in our region.”

A DfT spokesman said it was spending more than £1.4bn on 41 local transport schemes outside London and was backing a high-speed rail network.

But he added: “We cannot ignore the fact that London is the biggest city in the UK and a global capital supporting a large number of people who commute from outside the region.

“The Government’s strategy for transport investment is designed to ensure the maximum possible economic benefit to the UK as a whole – this means investing in the regions as well as ensuring that our major cities are able to compete in the world economy.”