Tracy Brabin says West Yorkshire needs public investment not austerity to drive growth after Rachel Reeves speech
Mayor Tracy Brabin is bullish about the chances of government investment in West Yorkshire, despite Labour’s gloomy soundings about its economic inheritance.
Since getting into power in July, Sir Keir Starmer and his Cabinet have said they need to review a number of big capital investment projects, such as Northern Powerhouse Rail and the Leeds General Infirmary upgrade, due to the apparent £22 billion in public finances.
However, at the Labour Party Conference, Chancellor Rachel Reeves indicated a change of tack, saying that the government understands that to drive growth it will need to spend on infrastructure projects.
She has already pledged to cover the cost of the consultation of the Leeds to Bradford mass transit system, and Ms Brabin hopes further public and private investment will turn the tram plans into a reality.
The West Yorkshire Mayor told the Transport and Growth fringe in Liverpool that she was really pleased to see the Chancellor say “that you can’t grow the economy by going back to austerity, that you have to invest”.
She said: “You can’t have growth without transport and a good transport network.”
Ms Brabin explained: “Mass transit, a £2.5 billion project, we’re already under way, and just think about the opportunity, not just to unlock our economy, but the chance for those young people to have brilliant apprenticeships, opportunities.
“Engineering is going to be our future, mass transit and the Transpennine upgrade, just think of those decades of jobs that will be coming through that investment.
“It’s an extraordinarily exciting time for West Yorkshire, not just for West Yorkshire but the whole of the North.”
In her conference speech, Ms Reeves, who is also the MP for Leeds West and Pudsey, sounded more positive about investment.
She said: “Growth is the challenge and investment is the solution.
“Investment in new industries, new technologies, and new infrastructure.”
Speaking afterwards, Ms Reeves explained that she hopes this would help with help tackle the “uneven growth” which has caused regional inequalities for Yorkshire and the North.
She told an IPPR event in Liverpool: “If we’re making it harder to invest than it needs to be then of course that investment can go elsewhere.
“The reason why that contributes to uneven growth is that capital intensive projects are in places that can be left behind and haven’t had that sort of jobs rich growth in the last few years.
“I spoke in the speech about the opportunities in carbon capture storage in Teesside, in Humberside and here in Merseyside.”
Projects in Yorkshire, such as life sciences, health tech and green energy, will be hoping to be boosted by additional government investment.
The Chancellor also said she wanted to change the mindset of the Treasury, so investment is seen as a benefit and not just a cost.
Ms Reeves promised “not make the easy decisions like the last government did, to always cancel the capital projects, to keep day-to-day spending there”.
She said: “Obviously we’ve got the day-to-day pressures in all our public services, but if we put off investment decisions then it makes the next spending review, the next Budget even harder if you’ve choked off those things that can actually unlock the investment that can actually grow the economy.”
Ms Reeves’ first Budget next month is expected to include some tax rises and public spending cuts.
She said: “This Budget … has three key objectives, the first is about protecting the incomes of working people.
"The second is tackling problems in our health service and the third is the rebuilding of our economic foundations, and that is why capital investment is so important.”