Rail scheme is a test of trust

Ministers must honour pledges

THE GOVERNMENT insists it is still full steam ahead with its ‘ levelling up’ agenda following Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s Spending Review. However the evidence suggests that the North still needs to exert maximum political pressure so that Boris Johnson and his Ministers deliver their promises.

This much is clear at the end of a supposedly defining week which began with fresh fears that the eastern leg of HS2 to Yorkshire will be delayed ad infinitum and now suggestions that the totemic Northern Powerhouse Rail link between Leeds and Manchester will be built on the cheap to cut costs.

It follows reports that the new high- speed line across the Pennines will now bypass Bradford city centre in order to save £ 4bn – even though it has been widely accepted that Bradford would be one of the biggest beneficiaries of the entire landmark scheme.

And this also needs to be set in the context of previous commitments after Mr Johnson cited Northern Powerhouse Rail as a priority in his campaign for the Tory leadership in 2019. He then reiterated it in a speech in Manchester just three days after entering 10 Downing Street as Prime Minister for the first time.

Equally effusive has been Mr Sunak. Four years ago, he challenged the Government “to back Northern Powerhouse Rail”; he promised during last year’s election to continue delivering

“critical infrastructure” to the North and conceded to The Yorkshire Post in July that progressing the Leeds to Manchester rail link, as planned, was an issue of trust. More significantly, changes to the Treasury’s so- called Green Book spending rules are now supposed to place a premium on ‘ levelling up’ projects. Time will tell – but the London Government is on notice that ‘ second best’ will not suffice after myriad broken promises left this region with a creaking rail network that would not be tolerated ‘ down south’.