Ministers mocked after boasting of using £235million taken from cancelling HS2 train line to fix roads in London … and branding it part of a scheme to improve connectivity in the North
Ministers came under fire today for promoting a £235million scheme to fix roads in London by using money stripped from a cancelled rail link in the North of England.
The Department for Transport sparked uproar this morning when it hailed the new spending in the capital as being made possible by using ‘rerouted HS2 funding’.
It also said that the London work was part of the Network North project, despite being in the South East. The project is spending £8.3billion across the Uk on road repairs.
The Prime Minister used his Tory conference speech in October to announce he was junking the northern leg of the rail line between Birmingham and Manchester.
He pledged to use the billions saved to fund other transport schemes in the North and Midlands that would miss out due to the axe falling.
Transport Secretary Mark Harper, said: ‘This funding is part of a long-term, 11-year plan to ensure road users across London have smoother, faster and safer journeys by using redirected HS2 funding to make the right long-term decisions for a brighter future.’
But Labour Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham said: ”’Network North” seems to include everywhere – except the North.’
The Department for Transport sparked uproar this morning when it hailed the new spending in the capital as being made possible by using ‘rerouted HS2 funding’.
Labour Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham said: ”’Network North” seems to include everywhere – except the North.’
Transport Secretary Mark Harper, said: ‘This funding is part of a long-term, 11-year plan to ensure road users across London have smoother, faster and safer journeys by using redirected HS2 funding to make the right long-term decisions for a brighter future.’
Bury South Labour MP Christian Wakeford added: ‘Cancelling the Northern leg of HS2 to pump money into roads in London epitomises this tone deaf, pointless government riddled with meaningless platitudes rather than real ideas. The sooner we get rid of these bunch of shysters the better.’
The Prime Minister used his conference speech to announce he would divert the £36 billion saved into hundreds of transport projects across the Midlands and the North.
He said HS2 was the product of a failed ‘old consensus’, insisting that ‘levelling up’ the Midlands and the North will be delivered more quickly and effectively without it.
But it sparked a backlash among HS2 supporters after business leaders and several senior Tories lined up before the announcement to urge the PM not to scrap the Birmingham to Manchester leg.
Writing in the Mail, Boris Johnson spoke of his ‘suppressed fury’ at his successor’s decision to ditch HS2’s northern spur. He said terminating the line at Birmingham would be a ‘betrayal of the North’.
Some £7.5million will be made available to London boroughs between now and March, with £7.5 million in 2024/2025. The remainder will be poured in between then and 2034.
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