Yorkshire transport schemes at risk in cutbacks

All spending signed off by Ministers since January 1 will undergo a fresh review, raising question marks over a package of transport improvements announced just weeks before the General Election including 235m for the UK's first modern trolleybus system in Leeds and 13m for a new entrance to the city's railway station.

Chief Secretary to the Treasury David Laws's order for cabinet Ministers to audit recent spending in a bid to tackle the budget deficit could also mean a fresh look at an 80m package of loans agreed to help Sheffield Forgemasters become a world leader in nuclear manufacturing.

Hull's 400m school rebuilding programme – signed off in March – and a 6.3m grant to help fund one of the biggest trials of clean coal technology at Ferrybridge power station, near Castleford, are also facing fresh uncertainty.

Meanwhile, former Labour cabinet Minister David Blunkett, MP for Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough, has written to Mr Laws and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, MP for Sheffield Hallam, seeking reassurance that a 10-year 650m programme to repair or replace the city's roads and streetlights will not be cut, warning that axeing it would "diminish the likelihood of Sheffield's future recovery".

Mr Laws, one of five Liberal Democrats in the cabinet, said each project approved this year must be reassessed for affordability, value for money and whether they were genuine priorities for the Government as he revealed he had been left with a note from his predecessor Liam Byrne saying simply "I'm afraid there is no money".

The Government hopes the audit will find savings on top of the 6bn of cuts in Whitehall expenditure already being promised this year. Any projects requiring Treasury approval will have to be resubmitted, although Mr Laws insisted there would be no "blanket cancellation".

"This is simply due diligence by the new coalition Government in relation to some of the irresponsible decisions we have inherited," he said.

The audit raises particular questions over 500m earmarked for a range of transport schemes across the region just two months ago in what critics branded a crude pre-election spending spree.

As well as approving two lines of a Leeds trolleybus scheme, Transport Minister Sadiq Khan pledged money for the new entrance at Leeds City Station and unveiled preferred routes to ease congestion on the A63 Castle Street in Hull and improve access to the Port of Immingham from the A160.

A 25m scheme to provide two new park and ride sites and the relocation of an existing site in York also received initial Government approval.

Meanwhile, Peter Birtles, group director of Sheffield Forgemasters, said the company had had no contact from Ministers or civil servants and was hopeful the 160m deal – including 80m of Government loans – to fund a new forging press to manufacture key components for nuclear power plants would go ahead, saying it gave the Government a "phenomenally good" payback.

Officials at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Department for Transport confirmed they would be

Continued on Page 4.