Transport and the economy

Further evidence from the Northern Way (TE 34A)

Introduction

1. This supplementary submission has been prepared by the Northern Way, the public and private sector partnership currently funded by the three Northern RDAs (North West Development Agency, One North East and Yorkshire Forward). It reflects developments since the Northern Way made its principal submission to the Transport Committee on 22nd September, namely the conclusion of the Spending Review on 20th October, subsequent ministerial statements on local major schemes and the Highways Agency’s programme, the publication of the National Infrastructure Plan, as well as the Government’s 4th October announcement on the way forward for high speed rail.

Spending Review Outcome

2. The Northern Way welcomes the Government’s explicit recognition of the role that targeted enhancements to transport connectivity can play in meeting the twin goals of supporting and facilitating private sector led economic growth, and rebalancing the economy away from the South East. This has helped support the relatively favourable capital settlement for transport compared with other Departments.

3. The Spending Review has established the Government’s short term programme for the enhancement of the strategic road network and the national rail network. A substantial number of the Northern Way’s priorities for the strategic road network and rail network will be implemented by around 2014/15. These enhancements will deliver substantial and worthwhile economic benefits for the North.

4. From the Secretary of State’s statement on the Highways Agency’s programme, it is evident that priority has been given to the management of congestion on some of the busiest sections of motorway not only in the North but in the country as a whole. Seven of the managed motorway/limited widening schemes are in the North. No doubt this is because the Government’s assessment is that such schemes deliver significant value for money as well as benefits to the real economy. The Northern Way’s own analysis highlights that motorway congestion around the North’s city regions is a significant strategic transport threat to the North’s economic recovery and growth. The Northern Way therefore warmly welcomes this investment.

5. As part of the Spending Review, the Government also announced that the Northern Way short term priorities (to 2014/15) for enhancements to the national rail network will proceed. These include electrification in the North West, enhancements to Midland Main Line and East Coast Main Line, as well as enhancements to the North Trans Pennine route. This too is welcome, although further details are awaited. In particular, the announcement on the Government’s preferred way forward for the Intercity Express Programme is of significance to the North. As well as there being a pressing need for timely provision of extra rolling stock for the East Coast Main Line, the IEP trains would be assembled at a new manufacturing plant, the preferred location for which is in the North East. There are also interdependencies between the way forward for Thameslink and rolling stock provision in the North including the routes to be electrified in the North West.

6. Inevitably not all schemes have received funding support. A number have been postponed with further development work being undertaken with a view for implementation post 2015. These include proposals to enhance the A160/A180 on the South Humber Bank and the A63 in Hull both of which would enhance road access to the Humber ports and two of four junction schemes on the A19 in proximity to the 2nd Tyne Crossing. Others have been cancelled, the most notable of which is the upgrade of the last section of the A1 in North Yorkshire to motorway standard. This scheme would have linked the North East directly into the national motorway network for the first time and delivered economic benefits by providing safer and more reliable journeys.

7. While understandable in the context of the Coalition Government’s approach to reducing public spending, these decisions are disappointing. What is now important is that there is clarity from Government on:

· the processes and timescales for developing affordable and worthwhile measures for implementation post 2014/15 to address the significant problems that remain and that cancelled schemes were intended to address.

· how priorities for investment will be brought forward that will inevitably come from the on-going National Network Studies, including the Access to Manchester Study, the Access to Newcastle Study, the Trans Pennine Connectivity Study and the study that is looking at the A1 and M1 corridor (the ‘Corridor 10’ study).

8. Given its role of adding value to what can be achieved by the North’s city regions, the Northern Way’s focus has been on the strategic road network and the national rail network. Nonetheless, the Northern Way’s evidence identifies the importance to achieving balanced growth across the North of targeted enhancements to local and city region road and public transport networks. Typically these are funded through the Department for Transport’s major schemes process.

9. The Northern Way recognises that in any spending reduction process not all local authority transport priorities will be able to proceed as promoters intended or would wish. The Government, however, needs to be mindful of two issues. The first is the danger that the contraction of funding to local authority promoters will make it challenging for them to resource the delivery of those schemes that the Government indicates that it will consider for funding. This will be amplified by the pressure on the promoters to secure higher local contributions. The second issue is that the funding reductions will impair local authorities’ ability to develop and then progress through the funding and planning process priority proposals for implementation after the current Spending Review period.

10. In our primary submission to the Transport Committee, we set out in an Annex the Northern Way’s priorities for funding in the Spending Review period. In the Annex to this memorandum we repeat this table along with our assessment of how these priorities have fared in the Spending Review.

High Speed Rail

11. The Northern Way also strongly welcomes the Secretary of State’s announcement that the Government will promote a national Y-shaped high speed rail network that serves both sides on the Pennines. A network serving both sides of the Pennines is the central proposition of the Northern Way’s September 2009 High Speed Rail Position Statement.

12. The Northern Way’s evidence as set out in the Position Statement is that high speed rail has the potential to bring significant benefits to the North, whether measured using the Department for Transport’s conventional approach to benefit calculation or in terms of the impacts on GVA and employment. On a per capita basis there is the potential for these benefits to be greater in the North than elsewhere in the country. The work that HS2 Ltd has done to inform the Government’s decision has reinforced the Northern Way’s position that a national network should comprise two north south routes serving both sides of the Pennines. The Northern Way therefore welcomes the Government’s direction to HS2 Ltd to recommence work developing options for the eastern side of the Y network alongside its on-going work developing options serving the North West.

ANNEX A: NORTHERN WAY PRIOTIES - SPENDING REVIEW OUTCOME