Liz Truss will perform a major U-Turn on Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) if she wins the Tory leadership race, pledging to deliver the project in full.
It would mean tens of billions of pounds of new infrastructure investment and new high speed connections running from Liverpool to Leeds via Manchester and Bradford. The move would be a reversal of Boris Johnson's much maligned proposal, unveiled last November, which saw the budget for NPR slashed by £24.9bn, with the original vision for a new line replaced with upgrades to existing routes.
At the time, the Government argued NPR scored lowest on "affordability and value for money", despite internal civil service documents advising it would provide "the greatest increase in connectivity and capacity" of all the options considered. Northern metro mayors, in a joint letter published last night, said building NPR in full was "critical to unlocking the full potential of the Northern economy in the 21st century and levelling us up with the South".
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Ms Truss, speaking exclusively to the Northern Agenda, backed the scheme saying it would "bring better jobs" to the region and address the productivity gap. She said: "I want to build an aspiration nation that unleashes opportunity for all, no matter where you live or where you grow up. We need to drive growth and business investment to bring new and better jobs to the North.
"We will build the Northern Powerhouse Rail to link up communities and unlock potential across the North. That’s how we will bring better jobs to the North and address productivity.”
Listen to the Northern Agenda podcast to find out what Tory heavyweights Jake Berry and Jim O'Neill want to hear from the next Prime Minister
The comments come after the Transport Select Committee said Mr Johnson's revised plan should be “reconsidered” to avoid a “missed opportunity”. The select committee accused ministers of not completing a "full analysis of the wider economic impacts" of making such a decision.
They also said it is was therefore "difficult to see how the Government has fully assessed the levelling-up agenda". Ms Truss, who is currently in poll position to become the next Prime Minister, will go head to head against rival Rishi Sunak at a hustings in Leeds today (July 28).
The pair will face off at several more events over the summer, with the next leader due to be in place on September 5.
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