Transport

In the hours after the election, news channels delivered a scene that few could have imagined in the wake of the 2017 election: a Conservative Prime Minister sweeping to victory across the North and the Midlands. But as the dust settles on the election, Boris Johnson’s government is left with the enormous task of delivering on his ‘one nation’ promise. Productivity in the North lags behind the national average, with a £15 an hour deficit when compared to London, and it is clear that repaying those voters, many of them voting Conservative for the first time, begins with an increase in the regional prosperity of the North.

This appears to be at the forefront of this government’s agenda. Alongside a manifesto promise for a £250 million civic infrastructure fund to complement the ‘Towns Fund’, Johnson has promised to “level up” the UK by “investing in better infrastructure, better education and fantastic modern technology” across the country.

By bringing cities, firms and people closer together, improved transport links increase the scale at which companies can work and encourage monetary growth, while preventing overcrowding and cancelled services that inhibit other drivers of economic performance. To unlock the full potential of a Northern economy valued at £344 billion, in a region of some 15 million people, better transport systems will be key to sustaining freight routes in ports such as Liverpool, Hull and Newcastle, and international airports, like Manchester.

Even as Northern Rail and Transport for the North groan under the weight of maintaining transport networks in a region that has received on average a 2.4 times smaller investment per capita on transport than London over the past decade, the signs from the incumbent government are positive. A newly-promised £39 billion fund is now expected to be spent on Northern Powerhouse Rail, a Trans Pennine link from Liverpool to Hull, connecting the North from coast to coast. This forms part of a wider £70 billion pot to improve Northern Road and Rail connections. Although useful in itself, this fund will no doubt complement, even catalyse, the infrastructural and cultural improvements resulting from the pledged small business tax reliefs and a new cultural investment fund.

But the Conservative Party’s historically poor performance at the polls in the North East shows that these new voters do not quickly forget an unpopular policy. The costs for HS2 are now set to exceed £80 billion, and it is predicted that the service will not reach Leeds or Manchester until as late as 2040. For all its publicity, the high-speed rail network is still years away from completing even its first phase, and so it will take more than spending promises to keep voters in the North onside by the time the 2024 election comes around.

The trouble is, as Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham recognises, that infrastructure projects inevitably last “beyond the political cycle”, and subsequently can be easily lost in the pipeline as governments and policy aims change. What the North needs is what IPPR North calls ‘quick wins’, projects that can be delivered within a single government’s term in office, providing immediate relief to balance major long-term projects like Northern Powerhouse Rail. From building a railway station at Leeds-Bradford airport to extending Manchester’s Metrolink or committing to the manifesto pledge of restoring some of the Beeching Lines, the loss of which have left many smaller towns isolated and economically disadvantaged, the opportunity to realise short-term gains in the North is evident. For the government’s ‘one nation’ vision to succeed, they need to find unity across the country, not only by bridging the North-South divide, but by connecting many of the comparatively isolated Northern cities with each other. Managing both long and short-term transport projects will prove to be a delicate balancing act, but it might just be the place to start.

Luke Cavanaugh is undertaking work experience at Bright Blue. Views expressed in this article are those of the author, not necessarily those of Bright Blue. 

On Yorkshire Day (1st August) this year, Boris Johnson sent the following message to us Yorkshire folk saying, “I know there’s wide support for more devolution here and we must now move forward with an approach that’s practical, while giving communities a much greater say over transport, housing, public services and infrastructure that will drive growth and see long-lasting benefits for families and businesses in this great region.”

The fact is that the population of the Yorkshire and Humber Region, at almost 5.4 million, is greater than that of Scotland (5.3 million). In fact, three of the 10 largest cities in the UK – Leeds, Sheffield and Bradford – are in Yorkshire. Yet any plans for a One Yorkshire devolution deal appear to have been stymied by the inability of the  Government to look positively on such a deal supported by 18 local authorities, including both metropolitan (mainly Labour) authorities and the rural, more Conservative areas of East and North Yorkshire and the Sheffield City Region Mayor. Both to the north and the west of Yorkshire there are devolution deals in Teesside and Greater Manchester, which means that there is a risk that Yorkshire misses out on some investment opportunities, as more funding streams are focussed on these Mayoral Combined Authority areas.

Despite all this politicking, there has been economic progress such as on the east coast, which used to be seen as a neglected and depressed region and is now emerging as the first evidence of economic and social renaissance via a North Sea energy boom. 

This has brought to Hull many new jobs with a Siemens Gamesa blade factory for wind turbines, the biggest manufacturing plant built in Britain this century. The company is currently adding a second production line to meet demand from the off-shore wind farm at Hornsea 1 while in Grimsby, the Danish group Ørsted has based its control room that manages every turbine 75 miles out in the North Sea. Hornsea 2, 3, and 4, are lined up for the early 2020s, and together they could produce 6.2 gigawatts (GW) for the National Grid. This ‘green energy’ will be produced at around at £57.50 per megawatt/hour (MWh) compared to the Hinkley Point nuclear plant’s projected price of £92.50. Such cheap energy opens up the prospect of direct cables to chemical plants on the Humber, at Teesside, or to the struggling steel works at Scunthorpe, making these plants competitive with other plants across Europe and the world.

Further up the coast in Bridlington, there is a harbour that lands more lobster by weight than any other port in the EU, and further in land at Goole, 200 more jobs could be created on top of the 700 already announced at a new train £200m factory. This factory will build state-of-the-art trains for the Piccadilly Line in London. There are plenty of other positive economic stories coming out of the county including in Sheffield, where Boeing now has its first European facility making actuation system components for 737 and 767 aircraft. This was following an investment by Boeing of more than £40 million.  Investment from Channel 4 can also be seen, with the station’s new national HQ planning to be located opposite Leeds railway station7. 

One of the greatest obstacles that faces Yorkshire, and indeed the wider North of England, is that the road and rail infrastructure is way behind that of London. This year, IPPR’s analysis of historic spending shows that over the last 10 years (2008/09–2017/18), the average annual public spending on transport has been £739 per capita on London, compared to £305 per capita on the North. This gap has grown over the last 10 years – spending per capita on London has increased by 2.5 times more than it has in the North since 2007/08. 

What Boris Johnson needs to do, alongside giving Yorkshire a devolution deal, is to give Transport for the North (TfN) more powers similar to that of TfL. This is so that TfN can get on with the full electrification of the Hullapool line, not just Leeds to Manchester, and improve other rail connections by giving local groups financial incentives to build new rail infrastructure or reinstitute unused lines. Local groups would do this in association with TfN on  lines such as between Beverley to York, Skipton to Colne and Harrogate to Northallerton. In addition, there need to be road improvements by making dual-carriageways or widening of roads a priority, particularly from city areas to Yorkshire coastal resorts and Humber ports, which are the busiest ports complex in the UK. 

Yorkshire is an example of how national government needs to devolve decision making to the regions of England, as has already happened in the three other countries of our United Kingdom thus bringing the operation of our county’s governmental institutions far closer to the people in a post-Brexit age.

Peter Wilson was born in Yorkshire and worked in the West Riding textile trade before moving into media including the radio industry in the UK & Zambia. He was involved in lobbying parliament to get changes made to broadcasting legislation in the 1990 Broadcasting Act and the 2003 Communications Act, which has led to an increase in the range of radio & TV services. From 2008 to 2012 he was Wolverhampton City Councillor. Views expressed in this article are those of the author, not necessarily those of Bright Blue.