Transport spending gap widens as North loses out

Transport Minister Jesse Norman’s written answer to a question from Hull MP Diana Johnson showed that the disparity in capital investment per head between the capital and English regions has increased in the last four years.

It comes on the day a cross-party group of MPs, civic leaders, peers and business leaders is launched to allow the North “to speak with one voice and increase the contribution the region makes to the UK economy”.

Capital investment by the Department of Transport on Yorkshire as a percentage of London’s total has shrunk between 2012/13 and 2016/17, despite both seeing more investment over this period.

Only two English regions improved their position in relation to the capital, according to the department’s own figures, which do not take into account spending planned for future years.

In 2012-13, the £138.50 capital investment by the Department for Transport per person for London was 42 per cent higher than Yorkshire’s total of £97.30, but by 2016-17 the £298.90 per head was 159 per cent higher than the £115.6 per person for Yorkshire.

The Department for Transport defended its approach to the North, citing its plans to replace or refurbish all trains on the Northern franchise. It said the amount spent on big projects such as the Crossrail line through London and the Home Counties, which is the largest infrastructure project in Europe, can skew the figures.

Officials said spending was focused on the number of transport users, rather than head of population, with larger and more densely built-up areas making greater use of public transport.

But Ms Johnson said: “This disparity isn’t just unfair to Northern tax-payers and fare-payers – it’s failing the country economically too.”

She told The Yorkshire Post: “There’s a broad cross-party consensus that the kind of improved economic performance that the UK economy requires to break out of our vicious circle of austerity and debt cannot happen without boosting productivity and growth in the North.

“This, in turn, means more investment in transport infrastructure and reordering investment priorities to give Northern England a fairer share – taking pressure off the congested South-East by developing the North.

“However, action is not following the ‘Northern Powerhouse’ rhetoric about ‘re-balancing the economy’, despite the Government’s own forecasts showing a stagnating low-growth economy for years ahead.”

Ed Cox, director of the IPPR North think-tank, said Yorkshire commuters would be alarmed by the figures.