Devil in detail on the way ahead for Network North

RISHI SUNAK’S contentious decision to scrap the Birmingham-to-Manchester leg of HS2 – which itself followed the Birmingham-to-Leeds leg of the route being axed – was accompanied by a promise that the billions saved would be invested in local transport schemes.

The alternative to spending £36bn on HS2 was badged as Network North – but the announcement last autumn came with a considerable number of caveats.

The most obvious was that many of the schemes the Government said could now be supported were things local leaders had been seeking for years in addition to HS2 rather than instead of it.

Equally all future schemes will require individual business cases to be signed off, while some of the cited examples of potential Yorkshire schemes, such as a plan to reopen the Don Valley line between Sheffield and Stocksbridge, currently having no allocated funding.

However, the Government has now begun to set out some detail of cash allocations for this region, with £380m for the new York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority, along with £168m for East Riding and £161m for Hull.

North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire will also get just under £120m each – with the total package for Yorkshire and the Humber announced today worth almost £950m.

Mr Sunak and Transport Secretary Mark Harper are making great play of the money being devolved to a regional level so spending decisions can be made on the most suitable projects.

But the devil will be in the detail and if mayors and council leaders end up finding they don’t have enough cash to do what they hope, there is an open question – at best – as to whether the Government will stump up further cash to make projects happen.