It was reported on 24 September that plans to develop high-speed rail across the north of England had been delayed yet again and would not now be announced by the prime minister at the Labour Party conference the following week. This has been met by strong responses from both Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham and leader of Manchester City Council, Bev Craig. Meanwhile Starmer is offering more funds to help struggling locations.
The BBC was said to understand that “concerns over the long-term costs of the line earmarked between Liverpool and Manchester have pushed back the revival of Northern Powerhouse Rail”.
On many occasions in recent months, it had been expected that an announcement would be made regarding high-speed rail in the north, but the BBC reported that “insiders said an extended review process of the project was under way in a bid to avoid mistakes made with HS2, which has been dogged by problems and costly delays”.
A government source was reported as saying that it remains “fully committed to Northern Powerhouse Rail”.
By way of response the Local Democracy Reporting Service have noted that, “Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham called the news ‘disappointing’.”
Meanwhile Bev Craig, Manchester City Council leader, told the transport secretary that ”we need to get on with it”.
“We’ve always argued, get it right and do it once – and we will push for the best deal for Manchester,” she added in a statement.
Northern High-speed rail: Burnham speaks out
Meanwhile the Manchester Evening News (MEN) reported that speculation was mounting that Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham is going to try and get a seat back in the House of Commons and launch a Labour leadership bid, and in early September Burnham reacted strongly to news that the deputy leader of Reform had announced that a Reform government would scrap new high-speed rail schemes expected to be announced by ministers within weeks.
The MEN noted that Richard Tice had told companies considering bidding for contracts to build Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) they should “not bother” as the party would “spend the money instead on things the country needs more”.
Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, commented:
“Mr Tice and Mr Farage are both creatures of the London establishment and so I am not surprised in the slightest to hear Reform make the argument for a second-class railway for the north of England.
Across Europe, every other country connects its big cities by modern high-speed rail but, like the Conservatives before them, the Reform party seems to believe that this should be a privilege only conferred on the southern half of the UK.
We have higher ambitions for the North than them.”
Starmer and levelling-up
It was then announced by the Guardianon 25 September that deprived areas of the UK are to be given tens of millions of pounds each from a new fund that Keir Starmer hopes will help Labour tackle the threat posed by Reform UK.
The Guardian reported that the prime minister would launch the regeneration initiative on 25 September and the paper reported he was “gambling that an updated version of ‘levelling up’ will address anger about Britain’s broken communities.”
MEN further reported that Starmer would say that the money will help “get rid of the boarded-up shops, shuttered youth clubs and crumbling parks that have become symbols of a system that stopped listening”, and that “more than 300 areas across the country will each be given the cash to patch up derelict shops, pubs and libraries, as well as new powers to decide which businesses can set up on their high streets”.
Finally, Starmer was reported as saying:
“As a nation we have so much that unites us, but we are also a country of a thousand neighbourhoods, where our sense of pride depends on what we can see from our doorstep. I know people are proud of their area, which is why they are so desperate to look after what they love and to get rid of the boarded-up shops, shuttered youth clubs and crumbling parks that have become symbols of a system that stopped listening”.
Why now and not last year?
This is a complicated picture, but what does seem for certain is that Starmer has been forced to address the many problems in communities outside London, as he faces the twin threat of Reform from the right and the new Mainstream grouping within his own Labour Party.
It is good news to hear that some support is being given to those communities that understandably feel broken, but a number of questions still remain.
Most obviously, why wasn’t this being offered a year ago? If the then new Labour government had come into power with a bolder, more radical programme, aimed at tackling the many inequalities and injustices in our society, then the rise of reform may well not have happened and the agenda could have been focussed on positive change, rather than the tiresome right-wing mantras about small boats and immigration.
There also has to be the question of whether the money being offered is enough and how the improvements are going to be paid for. If Starmer is not willing to seriously take on some of the many wealthy, vested interests in this country, and raise their taxes, then it is highly likely that it will not be enough to make the serious, material changes in people’s lives that will persuade them to abandon their newfound support for reform.
A high-speed line would show the voters whose side Labour is on
And then of course there is the issue of high-speed rail for the north, that we began with. High-speed rail across the north was something that should have been developed 40 years ago, when the oil revenues were coming in from the North Sea, and it is ridiculous that it is being delayed yet again.
If Starmer really wants to see off the challenges being made to him, then surely, his government must get on with delivering the long overdue improvements to the line from Liverpool to Manchester through Warrington and then onwards over the Pennines to Leeds.
As Burnham points out, in light of Reform’s reluctance to commit to high-speed rail for the North, a commitment from Labour could be an important dividing line between Labour and Reform and help to show northern voters who is really on their side.
With information from a press release by Local Democracy reporter Ethan Davies
