The recent decision on Northern Powerhouse Rail is ‘deeply disappointing’ and a ‘body blow’ for the levelling up agenda, says FSB Cumbria Area Leader Phil Collier.
Confirmation a significant section of HS2 and – and more importantly for many – the east-west Northern Powerhouse Rail connection between Manchester and Leeds, aren’t going ahead fully, is deeply disappointing.
Small firms right across the country were banking on both these projects being delivered – and was something we have been promised for very nearly a decade. To say this feels like the rug has been pulled is an understatement.
This really is a blow for the North, and raises valid questions about the how serious the Prime Minister really is on the levelling up agenda, and again raises the question of what the Northern Powerhouse actually is. For many businesses, Northern Powerhouse Rail was central to the plan, joining up our major cities and providing the big, economic centres of the north with additional, faster links, freeing up capacity for freight lines, and reducing the reliance on our over-stretched road networks across the Pennines to reduce our carbon footprint.
Many today will be rightly asking whether what’s on the table now will deliver anything like that.
There also remains some big questions over the ‘new’ scheme being proposed. Whichever way you cut it, it’s a watered-down project that’s gone from first to second class.
From the little we know today it sounds like this new plan will come with its own unique problems too, which are likely to see massive disruption for existing rail users – and in some cases even further delays to high speed rail connections than the original plan. Clarity on that is needed.
Cumbrian businesses might well feel that they aren’t directly impacted by the decision, however this overlooks the importance of the levelling up agenda for which this was, to many observers at least, a key scheme.
A better connected north would be a huge asset to the country and would boost the economy across all parts of the north and beyond.
I hope that our Cumbrian Members of Parliament can speak out on this issue and urge a re-evaluation.
Perhaps a small window of opportunity lies in the fact that these schemes take decades to come to fruition, meaning that a U-turn from a Government of one colour or another is still a possibility.
For now though the announcement is a stark reminder that levelling up remains a problematic issue in terms of the financial investment required when we are so heavily indebted due to emergency pandemic spend. Equally politically at a local level it remains to be seen whether voters will see investment of funds into activities like High Streets support and via the Towns Deal programme as sufficient to match the ambition to truly regenerate areas and help us in the north to punch our weight.
