Yahoo News Full list of towns that will get millions for new transport projects
Rishi Sunak has unveiled the areas which will be redirected funding from the scrapped northern legs of the controversial HS2 rail line.
Rishi Sunak has unveiled the areas which will be redirected transport funding from the scrapped northern legs of the controversial HS2 rail line.
The prime minister said on Monday that about £4.7bn saved by cancelling part of the HS2 project will go to councils outside big cities in the Midlands and the North of England.
The government says the money will be invested directly through the Local Transport Fund to improve local connections, but critics branded it a "re-announcement" of existing proposals, while Labour branded it a “back of a fag packet plan”.
The North of England will be allocated £2.5bn and the Midlands will receive £2.2bn, with allocations ranging from £49m for Rutland to £494m for Lancashire.
Blackpool will receive £120m in funding, while the city of Hull will be allocated £161m. A total of £238m will go to Leicestershire and £262m to Lincolnshire, while York and North Yorkshire receives £379m.
However, the funding will not be made available until April 2025, months after the next general election later this year, and may be invested through to 2032.
Sunak scrapped the northern legs of the beleaguered HS2 project last October and pledged to funnel funds into local projects.
Earlier this year, HS2 Ltd executive chairman admitted that the estimated cost for Phase 1 – the rail line from London to Birmingham — had ballooned to £66.6bn, having initially been costed at £19.4bn in 2013.
The Local Transport Fund announcement has already been criticised for merely redirecting funds to areas that lost out on their promised HS2 connection.
But the government insists the money will be spent on projects such as building new roads and improving junctions; filling in potholes and better street lighting for personal safety; tackling congestion; increasing the number of charge points for electric vehicles; refurbishing bus and rail stations and making streets safer for children to walk to school.
Yahoo News UK takes a look at the list of areas earmarked for funding under the proposals.
Blackburn with Darwen – £116m
Blackpool – £120m
Cheshire East – £180m
Cheshire West and Chester – £168m
County Durham – £72m
Cumberland – £148m
East Riding of Yorkshire – £168m
Herefordshire – £101m
Kingston upon Hull, City of – £161m
Lancashire – £494m
Leicester – £159m
Leicestershire – £238m
Lincolnshire – £262m
North East Lincolnshire – £119m
North Lincolnshire – £118m
North Northamptonshire – £149m
Rutland – £49m
Shropshire – £136m
Staffordshire – £285m
Stoke-on-Trent – £133m
Telford and Wrekin – £107m
Warrington – £121m
Warwickshire – £203m
Westmorland and Furness – £128m
West Northamptonshire – £162m
Worcestershire – £209m
York and North Yorkshire – £379m
Reaction to the plan
Labour described the proposals as a “back of a fag packet plan” and said communities are “sick and tired” of empty promises.
Shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh said: “Only the Conservatives could have the brass neck to promise yet another ‘transformation’ of transport infrastructure in the Midlands and North after 14 years of countless broken promises to do just that."
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.”
Sunak defended the decision to scrap HS2’s northern leg and put the money into local projects.
He told BBC Radio York: “We could have carried on with a project that was going to cost well over £100bn, take decades and have a very specific set of benefits, whereas I made a different decision.
"Today we’re announcing several years of funding that local areas are going to get for their local transport priority."
