North transport funding is fair, minister insists

TRANSPORT ministers have defended “unprecedented” spending on transport services in the north of England, despite claims that the North East is still being denied vital funding.

Conservative Transport Minister Jo Johnson insisted investment in the north was now higher than in the south, when he was questioned by Newcastle Central MP Chi Onwurah.

The comments contradict an analysis by think tank IPPR North, which warned in January that transport infrastructure from the current financial year onwards was set to be just £855 per person in the North East - compared to £1,307 per person in the south east and £4,155 per person in London.

According to the think tank, the North West and the West Midlands are also set to enjoy significant spending boosts. But this provides little comfort to the North East, where MPs have been campaigning for more investment to help grow the economy.

Mr Johnson highlighted analysis by the Infrastructure and Projects Authority, which found that planned central Government transport capital spending per head between 2017-18 and 2020-21 is expected to be higher in the north than in the south.

He told Ms Onwurah: “That includes £337m for new Tyne and Wear Metro rolling stock in her constituency.”

He said: “We are undertaking unprecedented investment in the north of England - £13 billion, which is the largest in Government history.

“Of course, we want to do more to ensure that we are building proper transport links and growing the northern powerhouse.”

Mr Johnson said the creation of new transport authority Transport for the North would help.

Ms Onwurah told him: “Since 2010, transport spending in London has been more than twice that in the whole of the north, and the Government’s own northern powerhouse says that underinvestment stops us exploiting strengths in manufacturing, energy, health and digital, which could transform the lives of my constituents.

“The Minister’s own Transport for the North says that it will cost £27 billion to transform the north’s economy by taking advantage of those strengths: will he commit to funding it?”