Opposition MPs have questioned the government’s £45bn promise to build Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR), with one calling the announcement “castle-in-the-air planning”, but transport secretary Heidi Alexander promises lessons have been learnt from HS2.
Last month, chancellor Rachel Reeves unveiled a major government plan to boost economic growth in the North of England, placing the long‑promised NPR at the centre of the programme.
The plan builds on the first tranche of funding – £1.1bn over the current Spending Review period – to progress planning, design and development work on the rail programme, which is set to overhaul rail connectivity between the cities across the North of England. Ministers said the money would pave the way for construction and wider benefits to begin in the 2030s, with a firm funding cap of £45bn set for the scheme’s lifetime.
In a hearing in the House of Commons yesterday, 2 February, to extend the High Speed Rail (Crewe – Manchester) Bill to provide a legislative platform for NPR, a number of MPs questioned the announcement, along with the associated funding cap.
The Bill was introduced to Parliament to grant the government powers to deliver HS2 Phase 2 between Crewe and Manchester, but this was then stopped after the cancelation of Phase 2 by Rishi Sunak. However, the Bill remains in limbo and it is the government’s intention to repurpose it to gain powers for delivering new railway infrastructure around Manchester for NPR.
Shadow minister for transport Jerome Mayhew discussed how the NPR announcement, in his eyes, has kicked progress towards the construction “down the road” because he believes Alexander “knows that she does not have the money to do what she has promised”.
“His Majesty’s Treasury has capped NPR at £45bn, yet that was the claimed cost back in 2019,” he said.
“That was before Covid, since when, as we all know, costs have soared. She knows that she does not have the money, so she distracts her back benchers with castle-in-the-air planning, with the taxpayer picking up the bill.”
Conservative MP for Tatton Esther McVey continued argument, saying the announcement was a ruse to keep certain people happy.
“The money being put forward was £1.1bn out of a £45bn cost, which was to be delivered in decades to come, when the secretary of state and her Government will no longer be around – hence, it is a charade to keep the mayors of the north happy at the local elections,” she exclaimed.
McVey doubled down on this by suggesting that reviving the High Speed Rail (Crewe – Manchester) Bill for NPR was a crackpot idea.
“Why is there any need to carry over the Bill? To paraphrase Monty Python, this project is no more: it has ceased to be, it has expired and gone to meet its maker,” she said.
“It is a stiff, bereft of life, so why won’t everyone accept this project is dead, finito, finished? By continuing with this charade, the Government are giving false hope to those who want it to happen.”
Alexander promises designs will be complete before procurement
Not too keen to accept what was being said, Alexander responded to the many claims being thrown at her by saying the NPR plan would not fall for any of the same mistakes HS2 did. Principally amongst these is the promise to fully design the project before any of the contracts are procured.
“The money we allocated in the Spending Review is to acquire land and do preparatory works on the Yorkshire schemes—those three corridors improving links into Leeds from Bradford, York and Sheffield—as well as to plan properly,” Alexander said.
She further outlined how her Government will not be making the same mistakes as the previous Government in that it will not be letting contracts when it has “not defined the scope of works”.
“If the shadow minister wants to understand why billions of pounds-worth of taxpayers’ money has been wasted on HS2, he needs to ask some of his colleagues some serious questions as to why his Government gave the go-ahead to HS2 when they did not know what they were asking the contractors to build,” she continued.
Following on from the Government’s NPR announcement, NCE reported how the infrastructure sector and beyond drew attention to any plans for the plan to revolutionise railways in the North must not follow in HS2’s footsteps.
As part of the session, two motions on the High Speed Rail (Crewe-Manchester) Bill were passed. The first makes sure the draft legislation will be carried beyond the end of the debate and the other allows for the appointment of five members to the Bill Select Committee.
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Source: www.newcivilengineer.com
