Tag: northern powerhouse rail

• A funding cap is a very precise choice

  Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) may have escaped cuts to the Department for Transport’s capital spending on infrastructure to pay for drones, but MPs have cast doubt on whether the project can be delivered in full within a seemingly arbitrary cap on its funding.

  By way of a reminder, the project does not have actual funding, beyond around a billion for development, but the Treasury has set a hard cap of £45bn on the amount that can be spent on delivering it.

  Now the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has flagged a “clear risk” that the Department for Transport (DfT) will not be able to manage the programme its funding cap. MPs said:

  This may help affordability, but we are unclear how HM Treasury determined the cap before the entire project is designed, scoped and costed.

  

  With NPR due to be delivered in phases, the PAC said:

  The final phase of Northern Powerhouse Rail—needed for the full connectivity and benefits—is at risk if the Department cannot scope the programme within the cap or if early cost estimates prove unrealistic.

  Most people seem to think the early cost estimates will indeed prove unrealistic and the PAC adds:

  (more…)

  2026.07.02

• Mayor welcomes NPR funding cap

  I’ve been looking at one of the so-called “compact agreements” on how central government and northern mayors “will collaborate to deliver the next stage of Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR)” and wondering if it is less of an agreement and more of a collective whistling to keep their spirits up.

  

  For a start, the agreements in fact cover several future stages of NPR and that’s really the point as ministers have chosen to chop the project into chunks to be delivered consecutively.

  An then the agreement between transport secretary Heid Alexander, chancellor Rachel Reeves, communities secretary Steve Reed, and – last but not least – West Yorkshire mayor Tracy Brabin opines:

  We welcome the £1.1bn funding allocated for NPR development in this Spending Review period, allowing development work for the first two phases to proceed without delay, and the certainty implied by the funding cap of £45bn for the overall NPR scheme, which will guide development and future delivery.

  So three cabinet ministers and one mayor, who is definitely not in a hostage situation, applaud a relatively small amount of development cash allocated by central government and a promise not to spend more than a specified amount, in place of substantive funding.

  The agreement goes on to explain:

  (more…)

  2026.01.28

• Show me the money, Blunkett demands

  The government’s framing of more dither and delay over so-called Northern Powerhouse Rail as an end to dither and delay, alongside a spending cap instead of new money, is breathtaking.

  So far this morning, the Department for Transport (DfT) has issued separate press releases for the North West and for Yorkshire and the North East, with the former (eventually) getting a brand new rail line between Liverpool and Manchester and the latter getting (first) upgrades and electrification between Leeds-Sheffield, Leeds-York and Leeds-Bradford.

  A third phase will focus on improved connections between Manchester and Sheffield, Manchester and Leeds, and explore options for Manchester to Bradford.   

  

  In an act of ineptitude that seems par for the course for the DfT just now, the press release about Yorkshire and the North East includes the wholly uninspiring image of “Manchester Picadlily Station” replicated here.

  With the Yorkshire part “set to be delivered in the 2030s” and delivery of the second part “starting in the 2030s”, transport secretary Heidi Alexander seems to believe she has Jedi-level powers of misdirection:

  For too long, the North has been held back by underinvestment and years of dither and delay – but that ends now.

  On the funding front:

  (more…)

  2026.01.14

• Northern Powerhouse fail

  Labour has once again got cold feet over Northern Powerhouse Rail, the BBC’s Faisal Islam reports.

  Plans to extend high-speed rail across the north of England have been delayed further and will not now be announced by the prime minister at the Labour Party conference next week.

  The BBC understands concerns over the long-term costs of the line earmarked between Liverpool and Manchester have pushed back the revival of Northern Powerhouse Rail.

  

  The Northern Powerhouse was invented a decade ago by the Tories

  Islam adds that “an announcement had been expected on multiple occasions in recent months”.

  Indeed it had; only last month a Guardian “exclusive” told us that:

  Keir Starmer is to formally revive Northern Powerhouse Rail this autumn with an announcement expected before the Labour conference, as a major demonstration of Labour’s commitment to northern infrastructure.

  (more…)

  2025.09.25