Combined Authority response to Government Transport Strategy
Combined Authority response to Government Transport Strategy
Responding to the Government�s announcement of its new, national Transport Strategy, West Yorkshire Combined Authority�s Transport Committee Chair Cllr Keith Wakefield said:��While this Strategy reaffirms the Government�s commitment to HS2 and acknowledges its importance to the massive Leeds South Bank regeneration project, which is expected to create 35,000 jobs and 4,000 new homes it�s concerning that the document�s sole mention of Northern Powerhouse Rail is where it says the government is considering the case for it, alongside London�s Crossrail 2 proposals.
�With stops in York, Leeds and Bradford and across the north, Northern Powerhouse Rail is not a regional priority but a national one that this Government must support unequivocally. I would, therefore call on Chris Grayling to make the same commitments to Northern Powerhouse Rail he did just a few weeks ago in Halifax when he was on the election campaign trail.
�With it aims of creating a more, less congested, better connected network, this strategy will hopefully achieve its aims of building a stronger, more balanced economy and making Britain a more attractive place to trade and invest and supporting the creation of new housing the Government�s Strategy will, hopefully, build what we�re already achieving through our transport investment in West Yorkshire and the Leeds City Region.
�But to achieve re-balancing, the Government needs to redress the legacy of under-investment that has seen transport spending in London six times that per head as in our region, which means real increases in funding and not just spreading existing investment more thinly.�
�With stops in York, Leeds and Bradford and across the north, Northern Powerhouse Rail is not a regional priority but a national one that this Government must support unequivocally. I would, therefore call on Chris Grayling to make the same commitments to Northern Powerhouse Rail he did just a few weeks ago in Halifax when he was on the election campaign trail.
�With it aims of creating a more, less congested, better connected network, this strategy will hopefully achieve its aims of building a stronger, more balanced economy and making Britain a more attractive place to trade and invest and supporting the creation of new housing the Government�s Strategy will, hopefully, build what we�re already achieving through our transport investment in West Yorkshire and the Leeds City Region.
�But to achieve re-balancing, the Government needs to redress the legacy of under-investment that has seen transport spending in London six times that per head as in our region, which means real increases in funding and not just spreading existing investment more thinly.�