Andy Burnham calls for more transport investment for growth

Manchester (Parliament Politics Magazine) – Mayor Andy Burnham tells the Treasury it is required to invest more in transport plans if it wants growth in all regions.

Andy Burnham has expressed stopping HS2 at Birmingham will leave the railway as a “monument to the British mentality” in a severe attack on Treasury spending conclusions. The Manchester mayor conveyed to the Labour conference in Liverpool that the truncated line would be a constant reminder of regional inequality and that some parts of the country are “more equal than others”.

Labour has rejected reinstating the second stage of the high-speed line which was to run between Birmingham and Manchester before it was discarded by Rishi Sunak in 2023. But Burnham expresses the Treasury will now have to “undergo quite a big change” if it desires to fulfil Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ promise, made in her address to the conference yesterday, to ensure development in all regions of the country.

What changes does Burnham want from the treasury?

“I listened carefully to the chancellor’s address and I heard a lot in it that I wanted to hear,” he expressed at a panel discussion hosted by Transport for the North. “The message from us is that we all want change but you don’t get it without good transport,” he stated, adding that the Treasury would have to “think differently than it has in the past” about investment in transport infrastructure.

Why is the Green Book criticized by local leaders?

Burnham also condemned the department’s so-called Green Book, which restricts spending on major capital projects to areas which are more likely to see a greater return on investment. Reforming the laws, which have long been accused of entrenching regional inequality and focusing investment in more wealthy parts of the country, was a key part of the ‘levelling up’ agenda supported by Boris Johnson during the 2019 general election.

What are the implications of funding cuts on transport?

The mayor expressed the Treasury “sees its main assignment as controlling or cutting public spending, and that presents part of why we’re in the position that we’re in”. He said: “Why are we just expected to put up with this? We as citizens of this country should absolutely be demanding equivalent living standards, equal quality transport. 

How will hs2’s future impact the north of England?

“HS2, in the end, is going to turn out to be the type of memorial to the British psyche that some places are more similar than others. You’ll get on in a gleaming new station to Birmingham on a brand new train, and then you’ll go off onto the West Coast mainline on the current project. 

What does that say to anybody seeing this country about what our own country feels about the north of England? That we can somehow be predicted to accept not even second best but third best.”

Andy Burnham is nowadays lobbying for £17bn in government grant to build a new rail line between Manchester and Birmingham operating money which he claims has been left over from the revocation of HS2’s northern leg.