The government has today confirmed Northern Powerhouse Rail as a central part of its growth plan for the North, setting out a phased programme of investment to improve rail connectivity between the region’s major towns and cities.

The announcement includes £1.1bn of development funding over the current Spending Review period and confirms a clear sequence for delivery. Early phases will focus on improved connections between Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield and York, alongside development work on the Leamside Line to ensure services reach Newcastle. This will be followed by a new route between Liverpool and Manchester via Warrington and Manchester Airport, before further improvements to trans-Pennine links across the network.

Crucially, the government has positioned Northern Powerhouse Rail not as a standalone transport scheme, but as the backbone of a wider Northern Growth Corridor, explicitly linking improved connectivity to higher productivity, housing delivery, job creation and global competitiveness.

Business leaders from across the North have welcomed the announcement, highlighting the role that better, more reliable transport plays in unlocking the region’s economic potential.

Rami Baitiéh, CEO of Morrisons, said:

“As well as having stores and colleagues across the country, we have a strong and longstanding base in Bradford. The news that work on Bradford station is being taken forwards in order to connect that city better not only to other key cities in Yorkshire but also to Manchester, Manchester Airport and the wider North West is going to be hugely beneficial for businesses and the local economy.”

Jerome Frost OBE, CEO of Arup, said:

“We welcome the Government’s commitment to Northern Powerhouse Rail as a truly transformational moment for the North of England. This infrastructure will help unlock the region’s vast economic potential, which will be felt positively across the UK.

“At Arup, we’re ready to help turn this vision into reality. Our analysis shows that properly delivered, NPR will do far more than move people faster between cities. It will generate tens of billions in economic benefits and provide the sustainable transport choices essential for future communities.

“The region deserves transport infrastructure that matches its ambitions. Today’s announcement represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to build a transport system that the North of England needs to turbo-charge economic growth.”

Ken O’Toole, CEO of Manchester Airports Group (MAG), said:

“This is a welcome and long overdue step towards the creation of a highly productive and internationally competitive Northern growth corridor.

“By placing Manchester Airport at the heart of a full Northern Powerhouse Rail network, people and businesses across the region will have the direct access they deserve to the world.

“That will help high-value industries to thrive and attract investors and visitors to all parts of the North – maximising the region’s contribution to national growth.

“The project will deliver the public investment needed to ensure the North benefits fully from MAG’s £1.3bn transformation of Manchester Airport. It will unlock the full capacity of Manchester’s existing two full-length runways – capacity that is available now.

“That is why we look forward to working with Government and regional partners on ways to deliver NPR at the earliest possible opportunity.”

Chris Oglesby, Chief Executive of Bruntwood and Bruntwood SciTech, commented:

“The Government’s commitment to working with local partners to deliver NPR is welcome. The combination of strong national commitment over the long term with mechanisms that support local decision making is an important step forward in ensuring that we finally have a transport system that is fit for the 21st century.

“For businesses, reliable connectivity is fundamental to a modern productive economy. It unlocks investment, attracts international business and supports growth.”

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A joint statement from the Northern Powerhouse Partnership and Trades Union Congress

Transport infrastructure is the backbone of a productive, prosperous economy.

Today (Tuesday 14 November) we are convening experts and policy-makers with Government and Labour leaders to discuss a new, more strategic approach to delivering major rail projects.

We are pleased that the Rail Minister has listened to concerns from Metro Mayors, civic leaders, businesses, and unions by protecting legislation for the crucial section of new track between Manchester Piccadilly and Manchester Airport, which constitutes the first phase of Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR).

This has saved us from adding many years to the project’s completion date. Now it can and must be accelerated to keep certainty for the supply chain, as HS2 Phase 1 is built in the coming years.

The plan to link up the great cities of the North through transport connectivity is vital for connecting jobs and businesses to working people. This is at the heart of the Northern Powerhouse economic mission.

We cannot afford any more delay. We must seize this moment to a message to investors and business around the world that the North of England remains an unrivalled opportunity for strong, sustainable growth delivering high skilled, well-paid, unionised jobs.

We need immediate progress on improvements between York and Newcastle (which await approval), electrification between Selby and Hull (which needs work re-started) and a new Bradford station with an agreed cost. New lines will be built in time but in the first instance we need to deliver these immediate upgrades.

Equally, we need to find the right solution for improving connectivity between the Midlands and the North, including between Birmingham and Manchester, and Leeds and Newcastle. Holding off on land sales would not only avoid government making a loss on blighted land, it would give us time to consider critical technical questions and ensure we do not close off options for future development.

We are ready to learn the lessons from previous projects – both successful and unsuccessful – and to look at new delivery models and funding approaches which could help to deliver schemes more efficiently.

Those of us gathered here today – trade unions and businesses convened by our metro mayors – seek a new consensus across the North and the UK.

We need a stronger model of working that brings together business, unions and government to deliver large-scale infrastructure projects that are underpinned by good quality jobs.

This means a National Infrastructure Commission that is more independent and able to assure productivity and the debt burden implications of its recommendations.

We also need the National Infrastructure Commission to be more connected to local communities and to allow those relying on its work to secure private and public investment to sustain and create many more new workplaces.

Maintaining certainty in the face of political and economic instability as well as avoiding significant changes to agreed routes would help us deliver projects on time and to budget.

It’s time to return to the ambition of our predecessors – the Victorians who built infrastructure like the world’s first rail network which we continue to benefit from more than a century later.

We owe it to future generations to get this right, to build a more productive future which delivers more opportunities and more fulfilling lives for Northerners than what they can expect today.

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In February 2020, the then Prime Minister Boris Johnson committed to building Northern Powerhouse Rail across the Pennines and both legs of HS2. His government had, he said, “the guts to take a decision – no matter how difficult…that will deliver prosperity to every part of the country.”

There have been a series of changes to the route since then. The biggest blow came in November 2021, when the government axed critical sections of the Eastern Leg of HS2 as well as almost all of the promised Northern Powerhouse Rail new track in Yorkshire.

These cuts will – ironically – deliver less good value for money in the long-run.

As Tom Forth of Open Innovations has argued, all of the government’s own modelling has demonstrated that the now-scrapped section between Birmingham and Leeds delivered the highest benefit-cost ratio (BCR). The London-Birmingham leg will be the first to be built, despite being the worst value for money.

NPP Chief Executive Henri Murison writes…

The changes which have been to large-scale infrastructure projects such as HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail in recent years aren’t just a headache for transport planners, it’s hugely expensive – particularly when it comes to redesigning stations.

It’s also worryingly symptomatic of the UK’s wider problem with ambitious infrastructure investment as a whole, especially for projects outside London and the South East.

In recent decades, the UK has fallen into a bad habit: detractors demand sections be chopped off to save money, those changes require new designs which, in turn, drive up the cost of the surviving bits of route.

The uncertainty deters investment and development. Worst of all, it makes those remaining sections far less economically transformative. When we whittle down major infrastructure projects, we end up with a pale imitation of the original vision which does not deliver the productivity transformation we were promised and, ironically, is less good value for money. 

The original benefit-cost ratios for HS2 heavily relied on traditional transport economic modelling, which has a narrow focus on journey time savings. What they didn’t ever do was analyse the effect of delivering a real, properly connected Northern Powerhouse.

Our research commissioned ahead of the Oakervee Review took into account the multiplier benefits of boosting rail services across the North and building HS2 in full alongside investing in skills, education and extensive devolution. We found it could unlock a £1trillion jackpot and create almost a million more jobs within the coming three decades.  

After all, this was never about shaving a few minutes off the time to London. The main case for HS2 and is and always has been about capacity.

The lack of capacity on our rail network is a blight on our economy. HS2 unlocks capacity for the whole country, not just the cities along its route, which is vital for delivering efficient, reliable passenger and freight services.

The next time you’re stuck behind a queue of articulated lorries on the motorway, remember that the freight could be transported far more quickly, not to mention in a far more eco-friendly way, if we put it onto rail instead.

So, while these projects do cost a lot, that money doesn’t go up in a puff of smoke. It goes into building a transport network that’s fit for the 21^st century, bringing us closer to net zero and boosting productivity – meaning that projects like HS2 end up paying for themselves many times over.

As George Osborne told the Andrew Neil Show: “You do need the big infrastructure projects. All the arguments that were made against HS2 were made against the M25, the Channel Tunnel, the original motorway system.”

And let’s not forget that those big numbers are spread out across decades. In the year to April 2022, the government spent £5.4 billion on HS2. We spent nearly ten times as much (£53.5bn) in interest payments on national debt.

There are also sensible ways we can find savings. For example, we can lease rather than buy the new trains, enabling us to address inflation in industrywide construction costs whilst keeping up the pace of completing Phase 1 between London and Birmingham.

Lastly, I promise that we will keep fighting tooth and nail to make sure that this region doesn’t miss out.

Bringing high-speed services to Sheffield and Leeds would create 50,000 jobs, support 8,000 new homes and deliver a £54 billion boost to the local economy – but we’re still yet to see the long-awaited Leeds review on how to make that happen.

The good news is that Rail Minister Huw Merriman, a trusted and credible voice on this issue, has said he plans to meet leaders in Bradford and Leeds in the coming weeks to discuss options.

The question remains, is the UK – the birthplace of modern railways – capable of finishing what we started?

While we dither, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and many more of our competitors are investing billions in their own networks.

I hope we don’t get left behind.

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By John Dickie and Henri Murison, chief executives of BusinessLDN and the Northern Powerhouse Partnership

Standing at the dispatch box earlier this month, the Chancellor pledged his economic plan would deliver “long-term, sustainable, healthy growth” across the UK. It was curious, therefore, that his Red Book contained no mention across its 122 pages of one project that would tick all of those boxes: HS2.

Earlier this year, Jeremy Hunt confirmed the government’s commitment to delivering HS2 and ensuring it runs all the way to Euston. But we now know that the completion date has been pushed back significantly, ostensibly to cut costs.

The sums behind the argument that delaying construction of HS2 will save money simply do not add up. Spending less now will only increase costs over the long-term while delaying the benefits for people and businesses across the country. It also puts jobs in the supply chain, like at Hitachi in Newton Aycliffe, at risk. 

The UK has a long history of projects that have been delayed or shelved to save money in the short-term only for them to re-emerge at a later date with a more expensive price tag. Construction costs inevitably go up – especially at a time when inflation is high – so taxpayers will ultimately end up paying more. This assessment has been confirmed by a leaked Department for Transport briefing document which drives a coach and horses– through the idea that a delay will save money.

According to this memo, the line to Manchester is two decades away, and there is still no certainty about how to get services to Leeds as promised. Meanwhile, HS2 will terminate outside central London for a similar time frame despite the fact that the area around Euston looks increasingly like one massive construction site. It is also not clear at all how HS2’s final southern stop for that period – Old Oak Common – and the Elizabeth Line that serves it will cope with this deluge of new HS2 passengers .

These delays would deprive people in the North and London of HS2’s true benefits for a generation. Instead of trimming and stalling the project, we need a laser-like focus on ensuring that people and businesses across the country can seize the opportunities it offers as soon as possible. The alternative is yet another generation with the economy consigned to be stuck behind a stopping service rather than the capacity and growth on a new line.

Political dither and delay comes at a time when the government wants to attract investment into the UK but this decision is instead sending the worst possible signal. Businesses are having to cancel plans, lay-off staff and not get a return on their investment. Why should they believe there won’t be yet more further changes and continue to invest in opportunities around the new stations? Or indeed why should they invest with confidence on the basis of any infrastructure projects in the UK?

The country needs this project to remain on track through swift and efficient delivery to drive long-term growth and decarbonisation. Slowing down construction of sections will do little to help levelling-up, particularly in the North and parts of London as well. 

Growth is the only sustainable way of increasing prosperity, improving public services and ensuring the nation’s finances are on an even keel. 

With shovels already in the ground, the UK cannot afford yet another delay. Ministers should lift this handbrake on our economy and instead accelerate delivery of HS2 to create a world-class, new capacity-boosting rail line that will transform connectivity between our major cities, including Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham and London.

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Yesterday the government published its much-anticipated Integrated Rail Plan and confirmed that the eastern leg of HS2 will no longer go all the way to Leeds and would instead stop in the East Midlands.

The promised new line Manchester-Leeds on NPR is being downgraded to upgrades on the Transpennine route alongside a new line from Warrington through Manchester to Marsden, West Yorkshire.

It means Bradford – recently named as having the worst rail connections of any major UK city – misses out altogether.

Plans to reopen the Leamside Line , which runs between Gateshead and Ferryhill in County Durham, have been shelved, in a huge blow for the North East.

_{New vs. upgraded lines in the government’s Integrated Rail Plan. Source: Department for Transport}

NPP compared the Integrated Rail Plan with the investment promised through the full delivery of HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail.

The government is investing an estimated £36bn less than was originally promised – and most of those cuts are in the north.

While £8.3bn has already been spent on work between London and Birmingham, investment in Northern Powerhouse Rail has been cut by £24.9bn. Meanwhile the original investment promised on the Eastern Leg has been more than halved, a cut of £14.2bn.

Northern Powerhouse Partnership Director Henri Murison said: “The Integrated Rail Plan is a huge moment for the North, and the announcement of the new line from Warrington through Manchester to Marsden, as well as the confirmation of HS2 in the west coming to Manchester and Manchester Airport, is welcome.

“However, the lack of a full new line across the Pennines will dramatically reduce the capacity and potential for rapid economic growth, in particular in the cities of Leeds and Bradford. What Northern leaders had proposed was an economically transformational vision. What we have is, as ever, second class.

“The complete failure to deliver the Eastern leg of HS2 in the North is a major blow – another review is not what the North has consistently and coherently called for. We will continue to fight for HS2 in the North, which needs to be a phased project starting with a brand new line from Leeds to Clayton, alongside the immediate electrification of the conventional line between Leeds and Sheffield.

“In addition, the lack of commitment to the Leamside Line means the benefits of Northern Powerhouse Rail to the North East are significantly constrained – this must be delivered to ensure the whole of the North benefits from rail investment”.

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One key section of Northern Powerhouse Rail alone could deliver a £22bn boost to the Northern economy by 2060 – nearly £8bn more than previously forecast – according to a new report from global engineering consultancy Mott MacDonald.

A new high-speed rail link between Leeds, Bradford and Manchester could potentially increase productivity by 6% (equivalent to £16.5bn), raise the employment rate by 1.5% (equivalent to £5.5bn), and increase gross value added (GVA) in the North by about 8% over 10 years.

The report, which is being launched today {Tuesday 12 October} in Leeds, says that traditional cost-benefit analysis, has failed to recognise the true economic potential of the scheme.

When simultaneous action across skills, planning, utility provision, education, tourism, leisure and industrial policy is taken into account, billions more could be added to the Northern economy through delivery of Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR).

When taken together, the leading city regions of the North have a higher population than London, but generate less than half the economic output.  

Creating better connectivity across the North of England through a new high-speed rail network was at the heart of then-Chancellor George Osborne’s original Northern Powerhouse vision; first proposed in 2014.

Since then, the government has recommitted to delivering the project on a number of occasions, including in Boris Johnson’s first visit to the North as Prime Minister in 2019, but construction has still not been given the green light to commence. 

An announcement on NPR was expected in the Prime Minister’s speech at the Conservative Party Conference last week, however the Integrated Rail Plan (IRP) remains unpublished more than ten months after it was promised.

Northern leaders have expressed their frustration over repeatedly delays to the IRP, originally due to be published at the end of last year, arguing that confusion and uncertainty is undermining business confidence in the region.

Henri Murison, director of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership (NPP), said: “The North is still waiting for the high-speed rail we were promised. Building Northern Powerhouse Rail across the Pennines in full through Bradford would be transformative for our region, attracting investment and creating jobs and opportunities for local people.

“Uncertainty over rail investment, in particular the Eastern Leg of HS2, is doing huge damage to our economy. We need to start building from the North down from Leeds to reach Sheffield to unlock connectivity benefits sooner.

“This is vital to releasing much-needed capacity on the rail line, improving local connections and allowing more goods to be transported by freight instead of heavily-polluting HGV lorries.

“Levelling up cannot and will not happen without the full delivery of HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail together.”

Cathy Travers, Managing Director, UK and Europe, Mott MacDonald, said: ‘’Many of us who live and work in the North of England understand the untapped potential that we have across the region. We know that we need true connectivity to unleash that potential and enhance peoples’ opportunities and drive better social outcomes.

“Northern Powerhouse Rail is a catalyst for this change and we need it urgently. In this report we have applied Mott MacDonald’s leading expertise in economic analysis and our experience of infrastructure investment to show the full economic benefit of delivering a new rail link between Leeds, Bradford and Manchester as the first step in kickstarting a northern renaissance. I believe our paper makes a compelling case for Government backing for Northern Powerhouse Rail in the forthcoming Integrated Rail Plan.”

Jason Longhurst, Strategic Director of Place at Bradford Council, said: “We warmly welcome the findings of Mott MacDonald’s report as it provides further evidence that a new city centre station in Bradford is essential for levelling up and unlocking the economic potential of the north by dramatically increasing the availability of talent between Leeds, Bradford and Manchester.

“As Britain’s seventh largest but worst connected major city Bradford should be the poster child for levelling up our country. While Northern Powerhouse Rail will revolutionise the life, work and leisure opportunities available to people and businesses across the north of England it is true to say that the city which will be most transformed by these better rail connections is Bradford.  

“The creation of a new city centre station in Bradford provides exceptional value for money as the increased economic growth it brings is 60 times greater than the cost of the station. There is a compelling case for a new city centre station to be made a priority in the Integrated Rail Plan to better connect Bradford to Leeds and Manchester which will start boosting the economy of the north more quickly and unlock a regeneration area three times larger than Canary Wharf in Bradford’s Southern Gateway.

“Bradford and Leeds currently have the highest number of commuter road trips between British cities. A new city centre station in Bradford will dramatically cut the 44,000 daily car journeys between Leeds and Bradford further build on our holistic clean growth plans which received a large boost two weeks ago when the council approved the creation of the UK’s largest clean growth testbed at Esholt, which will deliver 100,000m² of workspace for biotech, cleantech and agritech businesses.”

Read the full report below.

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More than 50 northern business leaders have written to the Prime Minister to express their “concern and frustration at the continued delay in publishing the Integrated Rail Plan”.

On the eve of a major speech from Boris Johnson on “levelling up” on Thursday, the Prime Minister was warned that any announcements on his key agenda to rebalance the economy would “carry less weight” unless the integrated rail plan (IRP) was published next week.

Henri Murison, director of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, said: “The North was promised Northern Powerhouse Rail and HS2 both sides of the Pennines. 

“However, confusion and delay is undermining business investment.

“Wider commitments about levelling up from the Prime Minister on Thursday will carry less weight unless they are matched by action – and that means publishing the IRP as soon as possible, not waiting till the run up to the comprehensive spending review.”

The full letter reads:

Dear Prime Minister,

As business leaders in the North of England, we are writing to express our concern and frustration at the continued delay in publishing the Integrated Rail Plan (IRP). The North of England has suffered from substandard transport links and inefficient, unreliable rail networks for decades – making it considerably difficult to do business across the North and attract international investment.

In February 2020, when you committed in the House of Commons to deliver both HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail in full, and tasked the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) to examine how to best integrate the two major schemes, alongside upgrades to the existing network. The NIC failed to do this; instead pitching projects against each other, and suggesting cuts to the Eastern leg of HS2. Now, the new, high-speed line between Leeds and Manchester – which you announced just three days after you took office at the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester – is in doubt.

Sacrificing parts of the network of new lines now would short-change millions of people across this country who after years of waiting would be left with a second-class service. The North needs and deserves a world-class railway – North, South, East and West. Connecting the great cities and towns of the North with high-speed rail is a major building block of delivering a Northern Powerhouse and stimulating the productivity boost that would create a North as prosperous as the South, and a balanced, fair country that works for everyone. It would also connect the North to the world, through the international gateway of Manchester Airport – particularly crucial as we look to build back after the pandemic and export our world-leading sectoral expertise in areas like energy and advanced manufacturing around the globe. Establishing effective freight links across the North of England is crucially important and will lead to reduction in truck miles, carbon savings, as well as reducing congestion on the M62. As the government moves forward with establishing Freeports in England, rail freight connectivity is vital.

Critical to how high-speed rail connections can create opportunity and boost productivity is the city of Bradford. Currently it takes over an hour to get to Manchester. With the fast new line NPR would provide through the city centre, this would be 20 minutes. Connections to Leeds currently take 20 minutes, with services so unreliable that more than 70% of commuters between the cities choose to drive instead. This would be cut to seven minutes – a shuttle service between the two cities.

This connectivity would allow this modern, competitive, international city, with an integrated urban area larger than Birmingham with a labour market of over 1.3 million people and more than 600,000 jobs, to explore skilled jobs in Leeds, Manchester and further afield. And NPR would connect Bradford to the world – journeys to the North’s international gateway Manchester Airport in 30 minutes, down from one hour 40 minutes today.

Getting spades in the ground to spark the economy into life post-Covid is vital for the North of England. Building from the North, connecting Leeds to Sheffield and onto Birmingham on HS2, and Leeds, Bradford, Manchester and onto Liverpool on NPR, would create thousands of jobs in th short-term, as well as attracting billions of pounds of investment in the longer term. In the Leeds City Region alone, the arrival of high-speed rail and the new station development would generate £54bn to the economy, create 40,000 jobs and attract more than £5bn of private sector investment. Yet each year of delay costs the North & Midlands £4.9bn – growth is being held back by uncertainty.

Moreover, these delays are holding us – as Northern business leaders – back from committing further to the North and seeking to grow our companies. A connected North, where our workforce can move around from city to town efficiently and quickly, would be a hugely significant factor in encouraging us and many other organisations in the UK and around the world to embrace the North of England, with the resultant boost to our country’s economy. In business, uncertainty destroys

confidence. You have the opportunity to restore that confidence, by publishing the Integrated Rail Plan as soon as possible, and before the summer parliamentary recess. And with it, reconfirm your commitment to HS2 in full, a Northern Powerhouse Rail new line linking the city centres of Leeds, Bradford and Manchester and the upgrades to the existing network that will persuade passengers back onto the railway, freight onto the trains, removing thousands of vehicles from our roads. This is a historic moment to create a truly balanced country and to level up parts of the UK once and for all.

Signed,

Debbie Francis City Executive, Arcadis

Tristia Harrison CEO, TalkTalk Group

Justin Kelly, Director Corporate Communications, Siemens

Steve Murrells, CEO, Coop Group

David Duffy, Group Chief Executive, Virgin Money UK Plc

Charlie Cornish, Chief Executive, MAG

Mark Reynolds, Group Chief Executive, Mace

Chris Oglesby, CEO, Bruntwood

Simon Bird, Director Humber, ABP

Nigel Schofield, Chairman of North Cheshire Chamber of Commerce & President of Warrington Chamber of Commerce & Industry

Sir Roger Marsh, Chair, Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership and Chair NP11 group of Northern LEPs

Simon Moorehead, Director, Pippa Beauty Limited

Mark Horsley, Chief Executive, Northern Gas Networks

Ian Ward Chairman, Bradford Bid & Manager, The Broadway

John Heaps, Chairman, Yorkshire Building Society

Ian Welch, Co-Founder & Chief Operating Officer, CallSign

Adrian Brooks, Chairman, Production Park

Andrew McFarlane, Director/Head of The Regions, Colliers International

Tony Attard, CEO, Panaz

Dr Carsten Kressel, Director, Kressel Regeneration

Elaine Clark, CEO, Rail Forum Midlands

Miranda Barker, Chief Executive, East Lancashire Chamber of Commerce

Mandy Ridyard, Director, Produmax

Annette McDonald, Deputy Managing Director, Tatton Group

Amir Hussain, CEO, Yeme Architects

Adrian Curry, CEO, Encirc

Tim Waring, CEO, Quad

Roger Scarlette-Smith, Managing Director, Thornton & Ross Stada Group

Tony Hales, Managing Director, MS3

Andy Storer, Chief Executive Officer, Nuclear AMRC

Frank Mckenna, Founder & CEO, Downtown In Business

Neville Chamberlain CBE, Chair, Cheshire Business Leaders

Andy McLaughlin, President, East Lancashire Chamber of Commerce

Justin Sherwood, Managing Director, Seriun

Mark Wigganm Managing Director, M65Jobsearch

Craig Fishwick, Director, Mayes Accountants

David Gorton, Partner PM+M

Adrian Mitchell MBE, Mitchell-Interflex

David Taylor CBE, Chairman of University of Central Lancashire

Mark Andrew Williams, Senior Channel Partnerships Manager, Western Union Business Solutions (as an individual)

Ged Ennis, Director, Low Carbon Energy

Andy & Oliver Brown, Directors, Crow Wood Leisure

Stephen Greenhalgh, Managing Director, JJO PLC

Stephen Dunn, Managing Director, North West Logistics

Paul Walsh, Local Brand Partnership Executive, Burnley Football Club

Amanda Melton CBE, Principal & Chief Executive, Nelson & Colne College Group

Warren Bennett, Director, James Places

Rachel Mcqueen, Chief Executive, Marketing Lancashire

Dr Susan Scurlock, CEO & Founder, Primary Engineer Programmes

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Leader of Bradford Council Susan Hinchcliffe has announced plans for a new Northern Powerhouse Rail station in the city centre to open in 2030.

Her announcement comes as civic and business leaders from across Yorkshire and the North are urging the government not to break its promise to voters by scaling back Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) through Bradford, the first step towards a high-speed network across the Pennines from Leeds towards Manchester.

Cllr Hinchcliffe reiterated the case for why a new station could unlock the full potential one of Britain’s youngest, most diverse and fastest growing cities.

The line from the NPR station in central Bradford to Leeds would underpin an integrated urban area larger than Birmingham, with a labour market of over 1.3 million people and more than 600,000 jobs.

It would increase annual GVA by £2.9 billion by 2060, an uplift equivalent to a third of the districts economy as it stands today and creating 27,000 extra jobs.

The current 25-minute journey to Leeds – which is so unreliable that 70% of commuters still choose to drive – would become no more than an easy tube journey is in London.

Since then, the government has made repeated commitments to deliver the project in full, including the speech by the Prime Minister in the Power Hall in Manchester, where the commitment to build a new line from Leeds to Manchester was first made.

Susan Hinchcliffe, Leader of Bradford Council, said:

“Bradford is one of the fastest-growing, youngest and most diverse cities in the country. It is brimming with talent and potential. 

“The Prime Minister has committed to Northern Powerhouse Rail, and this early stage of the line from Leeds to here could see real progress made by making us the equivalent of only a short tube ride apart, a critical step to the full network to Manchester and on to Liverpool.

“Our vision for Bradford is bold. A new rail station built in a decade with an extended city centre that will help us become better-connected and more prosperous.”

Lord Jim O’Neill, vice-chair of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, said:

“The Northern Powerhouse Rail project from Leeds to Bradford across to Manchester, travelling on to Manchester Airport and Liverpool, is vital to the long-term goal of raising productivity and building a thriving Northern Powerhouse. 

“It is now critical we get spades in the ground on the new line, building a new station for Bradford and building the tracks to Leeds to get faster, more reliable, more frequent services. 

“Building stronger links between Bradford and Leeds will unlock agglomeration benefits for both cities, with a population and labour market larger than Birmingham. 

“Once we have built forged stronger connections between city regions across the Pennines, the North can act as a genuine counterweight to London and the South East.”

Professor Zahir Irani, chair of the Bradford Economic Recovery Board and deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of Bradford, said:

“As well as a recovery post Covid, we need to start thinking long-term about building an inclusive and, sustainable future for Bradford that benefits all.  

“Linking the city centre to other great northern cities such as Leeds and then to Manchester in the West through Northern Powerhouse Rail would provide vital economic stimulus, unlocking the significant expansion of the city centre.

“An innovation district, directly made possible by the new station extending the city centre, will enable the strengths we have in higher education and health innovation to be brought together where we have world class capabilities.”

Jim McMahon MP, shadow transport secretary, said:

“We first heard the idea for a new high speed rail link across the Pennines in 2014. More than five years later, we’re no closer to getting it – yet another example of empty promises from Government.

“If ministers are serious about helping every region of the country rebuild, that means delivering HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail in full, including direct city centre links between Leeds, Bradford and Manchester.

“Labour MPs and mayoral candidates like Tracy Brabin are fighting tooth and nail to make sure these projects happen to deliver real change to communities in the North. “

Photo credit – Tim Green

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by Tom Bridges, Arup Leeds Office & UK Cities Advisory Leader and board representative to the Northern Powerhouse Partnership

A well-connected, functioning transport system is the foundation of any successful economy. When people and goods can move around more easily, workers can reach better-paid, more skilled jobs – and businesses can access a much larger talent pool and range of markets. This attracts investment, which in turn stimulates growth, regeneration, enterprise and innovation.

This theory of agglomeration is one of the core principles of the Northern Powerhouse. Construction has not yet started on HS2 to Leeds, yet business confidence in the city has soared due to high-speed rail acting as a magnet for businesses looking to capitalise on a huge labour market.

This success has not been shared by its nearest neighbour, Bradford. Bradford District’s productivity stands at only around 70% of the national average, with government spending far outweighing tax contributions. Despite being between two of the North’s most prosperous cities, Manchester and Leeds, Bradford’s poor connectivity means its talent is hidden away, locked out of neighbouring labour markets.

Linking Bradford into an integrated high-speed rail network that runs north to south, east to west across the country would change that. On Monday, Bradford Council launched plans, informed by work by Arup, for a Northern Powerhouse Rail station built at St James Market in the city centre by 2030, backed by experts and business leaders from the North. The new station will integrate the new rail route with faster local rail services, bus, mass-transit, new walking and cycling routes and green corridors to spread the benefits and connect with the wider city centre and nearby neighbourhoods.

Building the first stage of Northern Powerhouse Rail through Bradford city centre to Leeds could create a labour market of over 1.3 million people and over 600,000 jobs. Once the full line is complete, it would add over half a million people to labour markets in West Yorkshire and Greater Manchester.

Improved frequency, better reliability and shorter journey times would transform the landscape of opportunities for young people growing up in Bradford, unlocking the regeneration of the Southern Gateway area and developing the city’s assets in health innovation, higher education, manufacturing and clean growth.

New rail links are a catalyst for the transformation of cities in Europe. Before the opening of the TGV Nord in 1994, Lille had been in decline due to the restructuring of traditional textiles and manufacturing industry. The new city centre station paved the way for major station-orientated regeneration, a local mass transit system, and a transformation of the city’s cultural offer.

Bradford has an equally coherent strategy for transport to unlock place-shaping and growth on a city scale.

Locking Bradford out of the high-speed rail network would mean writing the city off for decades to come. It would mean ignoring the huge economic potential of one of the youngest, fastest-growing, most diverse cities in the country.   

This isn’t about throwing money at the problem, expecting nothing back in return. It’s a serious economic argument about targeting investment to address the structural problems that are holding Bradford back from growth – growth that would allow it to add the overall UK economy, not take from it.

Levelling up – real levelling up – will require a radical transformation of the North’s transport network. We need the new NPR line to connect Bradford, Leeds and Manchester. We need it to go all the way to Liverpool and to Hull. We need it to better link the North East. And we need it to link into the eastern leg of HS2, as part of a green transport revolution.

Change may not happen overnight but a phased approach that allows us to maximise benefits for local communities as soon as possible is the right one. This is the most effective way to bolster the connectivity needed to share prosperity across the whole of the North, rather than concentrating it in a few large cities. Our vision for the Northern Powerhouse is an ambitious one. We don’t just see problems – we see potential. We can’t afford to let cities such as Bradford get left behind.

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Over 100 major business leaders from across the North and Midlands have written to the Prime Minister ahead of the Integrated Rail Plan to get commitment that HS2 will not be downgraded, in light of rumours that parts of it will be scrapped. 

The full letter reads:

Dear Prime Minister,

Amid the Covid crisis, there is a decision looming about the most significant infrastructure project ever seen in this country. The future of HS2 is critical to the North and the Midlands.

A failure to deliver it in full, all the way to Leeds via Toton and Sheffield, would be a massive missed opportunity to create hundreds of thousands of jobs, attract major investment and stimulate huge economic growth to create a more balanced, fairer economy. Moreover, it would leave your flagship levelling up ambition in tatters.

In February last year, you committed to delivering HS2 in full. The National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) was then tasked with investigating how best to integrate HS2 Phase 2b with other projects, including Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) and Midlands Engine Rail (MER), as well as upgrades to the existing network. The NIC failed to do this – instead pitching projects against each other, suggesting cutting the Eastern leg through the East Midlands and Yorkshire and onto the North-East. Sacrificing parts of the network of new lines now would short-change millions of people across this country who after years of waiting would be left with a second-class service.

As business leaders, we are clear – the scale of the opportunities a High Speed North and Midlands network would create are only possible if HS2 is delivered in full. While we are heartened to see the progress that has been made on the Western leg, the commitment to the Eastern leg is far less apparent since HS2 Ltd stopped work on it over a year ago. On the East, the delivery of HS2 and supporting investments would lead to approximately 150,000 additional jobs in Leeds City Region, Sheffield City Region and the East Midlands region. Each year of delay costs the North & Midlands £4.9bn – growth is being held back by uncertainty.

The growth strategies of Leeds City Region and Sheffield City Region, both with HS2 at the heart, would provide more than £70bn to those city region economies, with the potential for almost 10,000 new homes and more than £5bn of private sector investment. Toton would be home to a state-of-the-art Innovation Campus; bringing together universities, start-ups and established businesses, creating up to 10,000 highly-skilled jobs and a network of surrounding garden villages. Critically, though, those benefits are lost if Toton is not connected to routes North – to Sheffield, Leeds and on to the North East, as well as opening up opportunities to an international market for Global Britain.

These transformational regeneration and growth opportunities do not come along very often. Major investment in infrastructure, which the North and Midlands have not seen since the Victorian era but has been delivered in London and the South East, would be the catalyst for a North as prosperous as London; the Midlands rivaling the South East for productivity and job creation. It is not just those towns and cities on the route. HS2 and NPR are essential to increase capacity and create better rail connections in places like the Humber, Teesside, Lincolnshire and the North East.  

As businesses, connections with our market, suppliers and exporters are very important. HS2 will link our great towns and cities in the Midlands and North contributing to local, regional and national prosperity that will be at the heart of a strong Global Britain. Private sector investment is crucial to realising the benefits of infrastructure. After suffering from decades of underinvestment, HS2 and regional transport plans will be the catalyst for greater flows of private investment, already coming forward but which risk being pushed back with growth cut in the construction sector.

The Integrated Rail Plan is your chance to move on from Covid to what the future of the UK should look like. Levelling up parts of the country that have seen traditional and considerable underinvestment, and that would benefit from a plan for growth. The opportunity to reaffirm your commitment to HS2 in full is within your grasp. Businesses in the North and the Midlands stand ready to capitalise on the opportunities an integrated high speed network would provide and help rebuild the economy. This decision is vital to the future of this country, and it rests with you now.

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