HM Treasury this week published regional fact sheets supplementary to the Spending Review and Autumn Budget.
The document sets out the specific projects within each region announced as part of the Spending Review and Budget, as part of the government’s wider support for levelling-up across the UK.
Here we take a look at the regional announcements made by the Chancellor, which outlined the North will receive funding amounting to just under £5 billion.
The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, or Furlough, supported over 2.5 million jobs in the North, from March 2020 to September 2021. In addition, over £4.9 billion was provided to support the self-employed in the North.
Businesses in the North have also received around £14.5 billion through the Bounce Back Loan and Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Schemes combined.
The Budget also looked at future planned investment across the regions:
Towns and cities of the North are due to receive over £519 million in local infrastructure improvements through the Levelling Up Fund, split across 27 areas. A further £1.4 million will be spent on the Community Ownership Fund to protect local assets.
Up to £150,000 will be spent across the North through the Restoring Your Railway ‘Ideas Fund. This will be spent on developing early-stage proposals to re-instate passenger rail links within the North’s regions.
There were a number of transport-related announcements within the Budget, with the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements providing over £3.4 billion to the North’s regions.
From this Settlement, Greater Manchester will receive over £1 billion for schemes such as next generation Metrolink tram-train vehicles, and £830 million will go to West Yorkshire for schemes such as improvements to the A61 to provide high-quality infrastructure for buses, cyclists and pedestrians. Further to this, the local roads maintenance fund pledges £420 million – enough to fix over 5 million potholes – across the North West and Yorkshire and the Humber by 2024.
This much-needed funding will support local economic growth and more sustainable modes of transport. For truly transformational economic growth across the North to be realised, the North requires the Budget to be supported by an ambitious Integrated Rail Plan to deliver improved opportunities for all.
We have summarised the Regional Fact Sheet from the Spending Review and Autumn Budget on the Northern Evidence Hub: Library, where you can also find a link to the full government document.