Ahead of the Comprehensive Spending Review 2021, our Interim Strategy and Programme Director looks at why this is the Chancellor’s opportunity to empower Transport for the North to build a ‘New North’
At the Conservative Party Conference – held in Manchester earlier this month – we heard the Prime Minister say transport “is one of the supreme leveller-uppers“.
At Transport for the North, we’re in full agreement with the PM’s statement, and as we look to the upcoming Comprehensive Spending Review, we stand ready to work with the Government to deliver for the North, and for the whole country.
One of the biggest issues facing the North of England remains the need to address the decades of underinvestment in our transport network: poor and unreliable connectivity is holding our people and businesses back, constraining growth, and hampering accessibility and social mobility.
In the short time since its inception, Transport for the North has established a clear role working alongside Government, our member bodies and the wider transport sector, to deliver improved outcomes for our residents and businesses. At the heart of our work is the need to bring forward credible and affordable long-term proposals for transforming the North of England’s transport network.
We’re realistic, and mindful of the fiscal challenges created by the pandemic, as well as the urgent need to support both Government and our local partners to respond to both the economic consequences of Covid-19 and the urgent need to decarbonise our transport network.
In Transport for the North, Government can be assured we have an accountable, responsible forum to which the North’s leaders remain fully committed. We have the framework and structure to do this. Our work utilises the incredible technical capability across our teams, and our decision-making is evidence-based and inclusive. We speak with one voice for the whole region, and have a plan that is created by the North, for the North.
This Strategic Transport Plan sets out a vision that could bring some 850,000 jobs and £100bn growth in GVA to our region by 2050. It’s a blueprint for transformation through investment that supports the levelling-up agenda and addresses those years of imbalance between the North and South.
Read the Northern Transport Charter
The upcoming Comprehensive Spending Review is an opportunity to start building the momentum necessary to deliver our vision. It’s an opportunity for the Government to show its commitment to levelling up the North and to help us ‘build back better and greener’ following the pandemic through our major rail and road programmes, including our flagship project – Northern Powerhouse Rail.
Northern Powerhouse Rail has the potential to transform connectivity across the North for our residents and communities. Alongside the Transpennine Route Upgrade and HS2, these projects offer a once-in-a-generation opportunity to realise the North’s full potential at the heart of the UK economy. And as our recently published report shows, it has incredible potential to support our visitor economy too, which contributes billions to the exchequer.
Last month we held our third TfN Annual Conference in Leeds. The conference brought together business and political leaders from across the region for a day of discussion and debate. The message that came from the conference was clear: local leaders are best placed to shape the future of connectivity in a way that creates opportunities for people and businesses.
Launched at the event, our Northern Transport Charter sets out the case for further devolution of budgetary control. It sets out how our unrivalled evidence base provides regional decision-makers with the information that allows them to make informed choices. The charter is not an argument for increased investment, but rather it sets out how it is possible to make better use of the funds that are already available, if the money and power is in the hands of those on the ground who know how, when and where it can be best spent.
Devolution is a means of empowering local political leaders to deliver on our primary objective – securing a better quality of life for people living in, working in, and visiting the North of England.
The Comprehensive Spending Review is an opportunity to empower the North. Take this opportunity and we will give you not only a financial return on investment, but also economic growth, a greener transport network, social mobility, and so much more – we will start to build a new North of England that everyone wants to see.