retirement has long been promised. Similarly, successive governments and prime ministers have promised
to turbocharge the north, but it’s 2019 and commuters are still having to get on converted buses 10 years
past their use-by date.
In the last few months it’s finally started to feel like the tide’s turning and the north’s voice is being heard.
However, as northern leaders we know we have to keep the pressure on, which is why we’re calling on the
government to commit to a #NorthernBudget in September.
The north has become weary of political pledges and gestures, as we’ve heard it all before. What we need
now is real commitment. It is time that major infrastructure decisions about the north are taken by the
people who live here.
It would mean that we will have the power to build the full £39bn Northern Powerhouse Rail network, not
just a part of it. And if the people of the north decide to go even further and expand on, then it would have
the ability to achieve its full ambitions.
There’ll be people who baulk over the figures – but £39bn is an £8.60 a
year investment in every northerner for the next 30 years. Which, if you live
and commute here, is not much to ask
Not only do I want the people of Liverpool City Region to see the benefits of this transformational network
- but I also want the same for Hull, Sheffield and the northeast – as well as Manchester and Leeds. The
North is more than a few key cities – it’s the towns and places in between – and while Northern
Powerhouse Rail (NPR) will deliver dramatically reduced inter-city journey times, it will also free up
passenger and freight capacity on existing lines, making it quicker and easier to get to and from hundreds of
towns across the region.
If Pacer trains symbolise what we’ve had to put up with for the last 30 years, NPR symbolises where we
want to be in the next 30 years. A truly connected north, with coast-to-coast high-speed connections, where
our people are enabled to pursue opportunities because of transport, not held back by it.
Ambitious and transformational projects like Northern Powerhouse Rail take time but we’re also calling on
government to deliver the first tranche of projects in the northern infrastructure pipeline. These rail and
road projects across the north are shovel-ready, and construction could begin in the next few years –
providing more immediate relief to road and rail users in the North.
It is vital that northern leaders have the power to deliver for the people they represent. Having control of
our own pipeline of shovel-ready schemes means we don’t have to wait for Whitehall’s approval anymore.
There’ll be people who baulk over the figures – but £39bn is an £8.60 a year investment in every
northerner for the next 30 years. Which, if you live and commute here, is not much to ask when compared
to other areas of the country.
Now is the time for this government to live up to its rhetoric on the north, now is the time for a
#NorthernBudget.
Steve Rotheram is the metro mayor of the Liverpool City Region