Rachel Reeves: I understand cynicism on Northern Powerhouse Rail
Rachel Reeves has said that Yorkshire commuters will get the benefits of Northern Powerhouse Rail in the early part of next decade, pledging that there will be “no more failed promises”.
The Chancellor was in a rail depot in Leeds yesterday to officially launch Labour’s phased plan for NPR, which has been in the works in some sort of form since 2014 when George Osborne was Chancellor.
The scheme was effectively mothballed when Rishi Sunak cancelled the Birmingham to Manchester leg of HS2, and Ms Reeves told The Yorkshire Post she “totally gets the cynicism”.
“I get that and as a Leeds MP I want to address that cynicism head on because I know where it comes from,” she said.
“What I would say is, we are putting money into this. In the past, the tram or HS2 or HS3 - all these other things that previous Conservative chancellors have announced and renounced - have never had any money attached to them.
“You can’t build this sort of infrastructure without money. Today, I’ve set out an envelope of £45bn for Northern Powerhouse Rail.”
Ms Reeves said she had allocated £1.1bn in the current spending review (CSR) period up to 2027 to start “land purchases and the development work”, and she confirmed more funding would be pledged before the end of the Parliament.
The Chancellor has been the main driving force behind Labour’s new plans, making NPR a part of both her budgets and the CSR.
“What I want is wherever you live in the North you can go to work, you can spend time, you can do business all across the North,” she said.
“That is not the case today. It’s very difficult if you live in Leeds to take a job in Manchester, very difficult if you live in Sheffield to take a job in Leeds because those train services are not reliable enough, not frequent enough, and when you are on those services they are jam-packed.”
She said people in Yorkshire would be some of the first to feel the benefits “in the early 2030s”, as the Government was adopting a phased approach to learn from the mistakes of HS2.
The first phase will include electrification for four fast services per hour between Leeds and Sheffield, and improved connections from Leeds to Bradford and York as well.
The second section will see a new line built between Liverpool and Manchester, while the final phase, finished in the 2040s, would be to connect this with Huddersfield and Bradford.
West Yorkshire Mayor Tracy Brabin said that the fast services between Leeds and Sheffield would likely be the first section to be completed.
Her South Yorkshire counterpart Oliver Coppard said: “Yorkshire is at the front of the queue.
“We are absolutely at the forefront of this plan, with the fast improvements being delivered in Yorkshire.”
Mr Coppard said that in his region work to increase capacity at Sheffield station would likely come first.
Ms Reeves has come under fire from opposition parties, with Hull and East Yorkshire’s Reform Mayor Luke Campbell claiming “that this Labour government only backs areas with a Labour mayor – everyone else is left behind”.
“I can’t accept Hull and East Yorkshire not getting its fair share, yet again.
“Our region has been asking for rail electrification for decades, and I’ve been making the case to the government since being elected.
“I’ll be writing to the Chancellor to push for rail improvements that reflect our region’s economic role and ambition.”
Ms Reeves said that NPR services will go to Hull on “existing infrastructure … with better trains, better reliability and better frequency”.
“Reform are against Northern Powerhouse Rail,” she added, “Reform don’t want Northern Powerhouse Rail to go anywhere, including to Hull.”
She said Mr Campbell and Nigel Farage’s party need to be clear as to whether they would scrap or keep NPR.
A Reform spokesperson said the party has always supported more East to West services, however said Labour’s NPR plan is “poor value for money and needs an urgent rethink."