Rishi Sunak cancelled the construction of the HS2 to Manchester with a promise to redirect funding for the high-speed rail line to other road, rail and transport projects across the north of England and the rest of the country.
The prime minister said £36bn would be reallocated, most funding for the north of England. However, many of the projects had already been announced in some form before his speech to the Conservative party conference in Manchester.
The money is due to be spent between 2029 and 2040, should a future prime minister not axe the schemes.
Labour said that “almost all” of the schemes announced “had already been part of government plans so cannot be described as new investments nor reinvestments”.
The North: £19.8bn
Connecting Manchester and Liverpool
The government says its new commitments sit alongside £12bn of investment to “better connect” Manchester to Liverpool, allowing potential delivery of Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR).
The Conservatives promised to build NPR in the party’s 2019 election manifesto. Originally about 50 miles of the scheme was designed to use track shared with HS2.
However, there were significant downgrades for NPR and HS2’s eastern leg in the government’s 2021 Integrated Rail Plan for the North and Midlands (IRP). Parts of Sunak’s announcement appear to reverse those decisions, reinstating the earlier plans.
Liz Truss promised during her brief premiership that NPR would be built in full, before this pledge was dropped when Sunak replaced her.
£2bn for a new station at Bradford and a new connection to Manchester
Bradford had been promised a new station and high-speed line to Manchester under NPR, but this was dropped controversially in late 2021, when Sunak was chancellor, along with the planned Leeds leg of HS2.
The downgrading of NPR meant building a high-speed track from Manchester to as far as Marsden, West Yorkshire, where it would join an upgraded Transpennine line to Leeds via Huddersfield.
£2.5bn to deliver a new mass transit system in West Yorkshire
This was included in the 2021 IRP, including £200m to “develop and start work on delivering these plans”. It said at the time the cost was expected to exceed £2bn.
Proposals for a tram system in Leeds and West Yorkshire have come and gone several times in recent decades, including under Tony Blair’s government before they were scrapped in 2005, and a council bid for a £250m trolleybus which was rejected in 2016 by David Cameron’s government.
£3bn for upgraded and electrified lines for Manchester-Sheffield, Sheffield-Leeds, Sheffield-Hull and Hull-Leeds
Works to upgrade the Hope Valley line between Manchester and Sheffield began in 2021, and are due to be completed in 2024. Electrification was identified as a potential option in the IRP.
Nearly £4bn extra funding for local transport in the North’s six city regions
As chancellor in 2021, Sunak announced £5.7bn of investment over five years in eight city regions, including for buses, cycling, trains and trams. The current chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, this year had already announced £8.8bn would be made available from 2027. On Wednesday Downing Street said a further £5bn would be added, with “indicative” settlements of up to £2.5bn, for Greater Manchester.
The announcement said funding could be used for “extending the Manchester Metrolink to Heywood, Bolton, Wigan and Manchester airport”. An extension to the airport has already been completed – in 2014.
A new £2.5bn fund for local transport across all areas in the North outside the six city regions – smaller cities, counties, towns and countryside.
The government namechecked three projects that already appear to be planned with support from existing public funds: tram extensions in Blackpool, zero-emission buses in Harrogate and upgrades to Scarborough railway station.
“Landmark investments” in roads
Making the A1 from Morpeth to Ellingham a dual carriageway has been a pledge of the Conservatives since 2010, with a decision on funding repeatedly delayed.
The Midlands: £9.6bn
Funding the Midlands Rail Hub in full with £1.75bn, connecting 50 stations and more than 7 million people – doubling capacity and frequency
Plans for the scheme were launched in December 2022. However, the West Midlands mayor, Andy Street, had been campaigning to secure full funding.
In Wednesday’s announcement, the government admitted £750m of funding comes from “existing rail network enhancements pipeline budgets”.
£1.5bn guaranteed transport funding for the new east Midlands mayor
The region had expected to see the construction of a new HS2 hub station at Toton, which would have included significant investment in local transport links to serve the site. However, this was scrapped in 2021.
More than £1bn extra local transport funding for West Midlands City region
Construction is already under way on an extension of the Wednesbury to Brierley Hill Metro extension, but additional funding was still required. Partial investment of £60m had already been announced in March this year.
A new £2.2bn fund for local transport across all areas in the West and east Midlands outside the city regions – smaller cities, counties, towns and countryside
Upgrades in the government plan include the refurbishment of Longport and Kidsgrove stations in Stoke-on-Trent, where government funding was already in place.
£100m for contactless and smart ticketing
To be shared with the North. Unclear if additional to the £360m over three years announced two years ago, but a long-held government promise.
Rest of the country: £6.5bn
Keeping the £2 bus fare until the end of December 2024
The major funding was already in place – the government had already extended this scheme until the end of October as part of its bus recovery funding, and then through until the end of 2024 but at the higher level of £2.50.
Greater connectivity for Scotland and Wales, with improvements to the A75 between Gretna and Stranraer, and £1bn to fund the electrification of the north Wales Main Line
Even if this happens, Wales has long argued that it has been underfunded, with HS2’s budget meaning it should have received at least £2bn.
