PM GEARS UP FOR BRITAIN TO BOOM
Boris launches biggest transport revolution since the Victorian age
THE biggest revolution in transport and communications in Britain since the Victorian era will be unveiled by Boris Johnson this week.
The incredible package of spending on vital infrastructure is designed to ensure the whole country enjoys a renaissance of prosperity after Brexit. Its other key aim is to guarantee Britain can compete with the rest of the world.
It is understood the Prime Minister will give the HS2 rail project the go-ahead
and reveal that 10 free ports are to be set up around the nation. They will allow firms to import goods and then re-export them outside normal tax and customs rules.
In a bid to see off criticism for backing the next phase of the controversial £100billion HS2 scheme, Mr Johnson is expected to reveal massive spending on local train and bus services.
Sources suggest that in a Commons statement on Tuesday, he will confirm money will be ploughed into Northern Powerhouse Rail to connect up the North as well as Crossrail 2 in London.
There will be details on rolling out superfast 5G broadband across the country, with initial projects unveiled.
All of this comes after weeks of globetrotting by the PM and his Cabinet team, designed to boost Britain’s links with other world powers. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab was in Tokyo yesterday as part of a four-nation Asian tour aimed at paving the way for trade deals.
Mr Johnson’s free ports move will be a massive boost to trade. The Sunday Express has been told that the Port of Tyne – which was brought to the fore in a high-profile campaign by Conservative South Shields candidate Oni Oviri – will be one of the first.
Ms Oviri said: “Free ports will transform areas like South Shields, bring in billions of pounds of investment and turn them into the Dubai of the West, with thousands of new jobs.” The ports will become huge trading hubs which will take business from EU ports such as Antwerp, Rotterdam, Hamburg and Le Havre, which cannot operate as free ports under EU rules and so must impose tariffs.
In a signal that he is focused on the new Tory seats won in former Labour heartlands, the Prime Minister will say investment is needed at all levels – in towns, cities, villages. This will close gaps in opportunity around the country, as was promised during the election campaign.
The Government has already launched a fund to reopen some Beeching railway lines. It has also taken over Northern Rail to improve services, and allocated £170million to kick-start a green bus revolution. Mr Johnson is expected to go much further, with funding to boost the country’s patchy bus network.
Describing the scale of the plans as a whole, a source said it will be the “biggest transport and communications revolution in Britain since the victorian era”.
The promise of investing in local infrastructure across the North and Midlands has been welcomed by MPS who saw off Labour rivals in those areas in December.
Morley and Outwood MP Andrea Jenkyns said: “It is fantastic that the Prime Minister is focused on driving through his Blue Collar Conservatism agenda of radically investing in the North. I’ve campaigned for years to improve commuting. “Connecting the regions with better bus services and roads is a vital first step to unlocking this country’s full potential.” Walsall North MP Eddie Hughes said that the country’s lowest income groups make 75 per cent of their trips on public transport by bus.
He added: “For those without access to a car, bus services are essential for employment and education opportunities.”
It is hoped that the announcement on transport infrastructure will quell anger among MPS over the decision to back HS2. After a showdown following Prime Minister’s Questions last week it emerged that 63 Tory backbenchers have registered their opposition to the line, which is being built to connect London and Birmingham in the first stage and then Manchester in the second. MPS were already angry about allowing the Chinese tech firm Huawei to invest in Britain amid security concerns.
But a Downing Street source said: “HS2 is an important part of this picture for many constituencies and the PM reassured them he would make a decision in ‘days’.”
However, North West Leicestershire MP Andrew Bridgen, an HS2 opponent, warned: “The cost is going to keep going up and it is going to anger a lot of our voters for no real gain. It won’t even be running until most of us are out of politics.
“The money would be much better spent on local infrastructure and transport links.”
Meanwhile, Crossrail bosses have been criticised for appointing the former managing director of HS2 to a key role.
Jim Crawford received £400,000 a year at HS2, despite the project’s ballooning costs. He was unveiled last week as Crossrail’s chief programme officer.
Mr Bridgen said: “This is just a revolving door of failure in public sector projects.”
BORIS JOHNSON created political upheaval in this country in December when he drove a bulldozer through the red wall of Labour seats and laid the groundwork for a new blue tide of Conservative MPS in the North and Midlands.
But now the Prime Minister is to turn his mind to the actual building blocks this country needs to make it a world beater.
The Sunday Express’s advice to the Prime Minister is that the bigger and bolder he is the better.
Mr Johnson has a unique opportunity to start the long-term infrastructure changes needed to truly allow the entire country to prosper.
So if he is to go for the controversial HS2 project then he should confirm that he will build Northern Powerhouse Rail connecting up the North of England, and Crossrail 2 in London.
All these great projects are needed, so with borrowing levels at their cheapest and Mr Johnson’s political majority more than secure, now is the time to look into the long-term future.
He is also right to invest heavily in bus services and broadband. But perhaps the boldest move of all would be to open up freeports in places such as the Port oftyne.they would bring massive investment to those communities and the country as a whole and the EU would be unable to compete.
There will be the usual decryers who want to set limits on ambition and will say we cannot afford it. But these projects are investments that will yield far more in revenues than they cost.
If Mr Johnson is brave and ignores the doomsters his legacy will be secure.