Mayors from across the North of England including Andy Burnham have written to the candidates vying to be Prime Minster to raise their concerns about the Government’s northern transport plans and called on the winning candidate to meet with them to agree a better way forward for the North.
Despite commitments from successive Chancellors and Prime Ministers, and a clear commitment to build Northern Powerhouse Rail in the 2019 Conservative Manifesto, the Government’s Integrated Rail Plan (IRP), published in 2021 caused huge disappointment with Northern Leaders. The IRP did not deliver the plan that Transport for the North had agreed was required, cutting Bradford out completely.
The letter comes ahead of Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak’s face to face debate in Leeds tonight
In the letter, the Mayors say
We remain firmly of the view that this project is critical to unlocking the full potential of the Northern economy in the 21st century and levelling us up with the South. What has been put forward in IRP falls far short, cuts Bradford out completely and does not deliver on the promises the Conservative Party has made to the North of England.
We have been encouraged, however, by the fact that you have both signed up to the Mayor of Tees Valley’s ‘Levelling Up Pledge’, which includes a commitment to “the full construction of Northern Powerhouse Rail”. To us, Northern Powerhouse Rail is the scheme proposed by Transport for the North and not the proposal in the IRP about which there was no consultation with anyone in the North.
