Treasury urged to look North

TRANSPORT bosses and politicians from across Yorkshire have reacted with fury to revelations the infrastructure programme published by the Treasury last month will target 84 per cent of spending towards London and the South East.

The new report by the IPPR North think-tank concludes that the “Greater South-East” area has now become “locked into a dependency on public sector spending”, with its population increasing as quickly as the Government pours money in to improve transport infrastructure.

The implications for the rest of the country are clear – just six per cent of the spending within the Government’s latest National Infrastructure Plan will make it to the North of England.

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Yorkshire is by no means the most-neglected region – the IPPR figures show future investment will be even more limited in the North East, East, South West and even the North West.

But all are dwarfed by the £28bn reportedly planned for London and the South East.

Metro, the local transport authority for West Yorkshire, has been battling in vain for years to secure a next-generation transport system (NGT) for Leeds, having looked on as neighbouring cities such as Manchester, Sheffield and Nottingham all moved ahead with modern tram networks.

Its latest proposal, a hugely-scaled down trolleybus system, was delayed again by the Department for Transport (DfT) this week.

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Metro chairman Councillor James Lewis said that decision was indicative of the geographic inequalities laid bare today.

“In a week when we have had the NGT trolleybus scheme further delayed while we are asked to provide further information – not to see whether we clear the DfT’s qualifying bar, but by how far we clear it – sadly this news is not very surprising,” said Coun Lewis.

“Despite the previous Transport Secretary, Philip Hammond, saying that investment needs to be ‘overlaid with a view about regional equity’, this huge discrepancy in transport spending shows that Government is deliberately starving our region of much vital funding for schemes that will support economic growth and create permanent new jobs.”

The DfT has stressed that it recently announced a further £1.4bn of transport programmes, and that Yorkshire was one of the biggest beneficiaries thanks to schemes such as the proposed electrification of the Transpennine railway.

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But even within that package, many projects have been scaled back to save relatively small amounts of money – while billions are ploughed into schemes such as London’s Crossrail.

York Council was told the DfT could not afford to fund three new park-and-ride sites around the congested city. Only two will now go ahead.

Labour council leader James Alexander said: “The South East has different needs in relation to transport, but the green light given to schemes in that area reflects the London-centric nature of this Government’s economic policies.

“It says it expects areas to be less reliant on the public sector, but this will not happen without the proper infrastructure to support business growth.”

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Regional politicians from within coalition parties have also come out fighting, with Liberal Democrat Greg Mulholland – MP for Leeds North West – describing the sums spent on London as “mind-boggling”.

He said: “This report once again shows starkly that London and the South East continue to receive a hugely skewed share of transport infrastructure spending – something that has been the case for years, and made worse by the mind-boggling sums being spent on Crossrail and Thameslink.

“This is something that is simply not acceptable and must be addressed.”

Mr Mulholland said recent announcements such as two new stations for Leeds were “good news” but ultimately “small fry in comparison”.

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Conservative MP Stuart Andrew, who represents Pudsey, said the figures were “disappointing”.

“This is a situation that goes back very many years,” he said. “It’s crucial we see a rebalancing of the amount that’s spent on projects in the North.”

Business leaders across Yorkshire have long called for increased spending on key transport projects to boost the region’s ailing economy.

Ian Williams, director of policy at Leeds, York and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce, condemned the inequity between North and South as “unacceptable”. He added: “As the engine of the UK economy, no one can dispute that investment in the South East’s infrastructure is essential to the well-being of the national economy. However, the extent of the disparity between the South East and the rest of the English regions is unacceptable.

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“Just last week, the Deputy Prime Minister came to Leeds and spoke of the importance of the rebalancing the economy and distributing growth – yet transport spend is still heavily concentrated in the South East.”

Comment: Page 14.