From Powerhouse to powerless . . .
GOVERNMENT STRIPS TRANSPORT FOR THE NORTH OF RESPONSIBILITY FOR RAIL PROJECT
GOVERNMENT is taking all devolved funding and responsibility for Northern Powerhouse Rail away from the Northern transport body originally tasked with developing it.
In a letter to the chief executive of Transport for the North (TfN), sent on the day government’s new ‘Integrated Rail Plan’ was revealed, the Department of Transport confirmed it was taking sole responsibility for directing future work on the project – which was scaled back in yesterday’s announcement.
TfN would in turn become an advisory body as NPR goes forward.
Government has said the move is aimed at streamlining accountability of high speed rail projects nationally, but Labour have accused it of pursuing an ongoing ‘Whitehall power grab’ that signals the ‘death knell’ for transport devolution.
TfN was the first statutory body of its kind, bringing together leaders and a team of transport officials to make the case for Northern investment.
One of its main responsibilities in recent years has been the development of proposals for Northern Powerhouse Rail, the network of high-speed east-west rail links first envisaged by George Osborne. Under that arrangement it has been responsible for instructing Network Rail.
However there have been signs for some time that government is keen to sideline the body and TfN’s preferred option for the first stage of NPR - a new line from Manchester to Leeds, via Bradford – was not taken up by the government in yesterday’s plan, described as ‘low to poor value for money.’
It instead went for a new line from Warrington to Marsden, a move that is £18bn cheaper and will not appear until the 2040s.
In a letter to TfN chief executive Martin Tugwell yesterday, the director of the DfT’s Rail Infrastructure Group, David Hughes, said the department intended to take ‘full and immediate responsibility’ for developing NPR’s strategic outline case.
That means the funding provided to TfN for the project’s development will be pulled from next April, with that money instead going directly from the DfT to Network Rail.
TfN would then become a ‘cosponsor’ of the project, effectively an advisory role on integrating NPR into local services and regeneration plans.
The letter argues previous arrangements have not always worked well and that with HS2 and NPR moving forward, there needs to be a more seamless line of accountability into the Secretary of State.
There had been suspicion at the outset that that move could be the beginning of the end for TfN and Labour’s Shadow Transport Secretary Jim McMahon said the latest letter from government proved that to be the case. “It was clear once TFN found its own voice and came up with a Northern Powerhouse Rail plan the government didn’t support, it would meet its end. “The warning sign was there with the Northern Transport Acceleration Council, which immediately downgraded the North in favour of a Whitehall power grab. This is the death knell for transport devolution.”
The DfT has been approached for comment.
This is the death knell for transport devolution Labour’s Shadow Transport Secretary Jim McMahon