Rishi Sunak vowed to divert billions of pounds freed up from downgrading HS2 into fixing potholes and refurbing stations today.
The PM laid out how the money previously earmarked for the huge rail project will be allocated to areas as he made a ‘Levelling Up’ pitch to the Red Wall.
Mr Sunak is holding a Cabinet ‘away-day’ in Yorkshire as he seeks to burnish his credentials in the key election battleground.
The North of England will be handed £2.5billion and the Midlands will receive £2.2billion from the budgets for the axed northern leg of HS2.
However, the funding will not be made available until April 2025 – after the general election expected later this year.
Rishi Sunak (pictured at a Network Rail site near York) is holding a Cabinet ‘away-day’ in Yorkshire as he seeks to burnish his credentials in the key Red Wall election battleground
The HS2 plans were dramatically downgraded by Mr Sunak last year
The Cabinet met in Goole, Yorkshire today to underline the government’s commitment to the North
Mr Sunak told BBC Radio York: ‘We could have carried on with a project that was going to cost well over £100billion, take decades and have a very specific set of benefits, whereas I made a different decision.
‘I said ‘I’m going to take that money, and instead I’m going to give it to local areas to spend on their local transport priorities’.
‘And that’s already started to happen. So local authorities have already got money at the end of last year for more road resurfacing and potholes. They’re going to get more of that this year. We’ve already capped bus fares at £2.
‘And today we’re announcing several years of funding that local areas are going to get for their local transport priority.
‘So our plans are already delivering benefits to people and, I think, will be transformational for spreading opportunity, improving connectivity across the North and Midlands in a way that’s never happened before.’
The Government said it will go into a ‘local transport fund’ targeted at smaller cities, towns and rural areas, which councils and unitary authorities will decide how best to spend.
Labour accused ministers of having the ‘brass neck’ to speak about ‘transformation’ to regional transport services after ‘countless broken promises to do just that.’
The visit to Yorkshire and the Humber will be the first time Mr Sunak has held a regional Cabinet outside of conference season since he took office in 2022.
The last time ministers gathered outside of London was for emergency talks ahead of the PM’s announcement that HS2 would be scaled back at last year’s meeting of Tory delegates.
At the party’s annual conference in Manchester – the city most directly hit by the U-turn – Mr Sunak confirmed after months of speculation that plans for the high-speed rail project north of Birmingham would be scrapped amid spiralling costs.
The Prime Minister promised to reinvest ‘every single penny’ of £36billion previously earmarked for the scheme into hundreds of new transport projects.
At Cabinet, Mr Sunak is expected to say that ministers and MPs should ‘hold local authorities to account’ to ensure the local transport fund is ‘used appropriately’, Downing Street said.
The Transport Secretary is expected to update colleagues on the delivery of Network North – the Government’s overarching plan to replace HS2’s northern leg.
The Government says the new funding allocations will provide local authorities with long-term certainty over the amount they have to spend on transport services their communities need the most, for example expanding mass transit systems, filling potholes, roadbuilding or refurbishing bus and rail stations.
The PM and ministers are also to meet with communities, businesses and organisations to discuss their priorities for the fund and how their area can best benefit from the money.
Mr Sunak said: ‘We have a clear plan to level up our country with greater transport links that people need and deliver the right long-term change for a brighter future.
Building work is still going ahead on other parts of the HS2 project (pictured, Water Orton near Birmingham)
‘The local transport fund will deliver a new era of transport connectivity. This unprecedented investment will benefit more people, in more places, more quickly than HS2 ever would have done, and comes alongside the billions of pound worth of funding we’ve already invested into our roads, buses and local transport services across the country.’
Transport Secretary Mark Harper said: ‘Today’s £4.7 billion investment is truly game-changing for the smaller cities, towns, and rural communities across the North and the Midlands, and is only possible because this Government has a plan to improve local transport and is willing to take tough decisions like reallocating funding from the second phase of HS2.’
Greater Manchester Labour Mayor Andy Burnham said in a post on X: ‘Didn’t they promise this exactly 10 years ago? They must think we are thick.’