Latest news with #NorthernArc
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
The big mistake Labour think Nigel Farage has made - and how the chancellor hopes to capitalise
Next week, the chancellor will unveil the first spending review since 2021. It will set Whitehall budgets for the remainder of this parliament and it will be a big moment for a government struggling to tell a story about what it is trying to achieve to voters. Rachel Reeves, flanked by transport workers in a bus depot in Rochdale, knows it. She came to the North West armed with £15bn of funding for trains, trams and buses across the Midlands and the North. Much more will be announced next week when the chancellor sets out her capital spending plans for the remainder of the parliament, having loosened her fiscal rules in the budget for capital investment. More is coming. Next week, the chancellor is expected to announce plans to spend billions more on a new railway line between Manchester and Liverpool, as well as other transport schemes for northern towns and cities. This will be the backbone of the "Northern Arc" that Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham has been arguing for as a northern version to the much-vaunted Oxford-Cambridge growth corridor. Labour will pour £113bn into capital investment over the course of this parliament and there is an economic and political imperative for a chancellor to talk up capital spending in rail and roads, houses, power stations. On the economic side, she is in search for growth and hopes investment in infrastructure will create jobs and fire up the economy. On the politics, Labour need to show voters in their red wall seats that it is the Starmer government and not Nigel Farage that will improve the lives of working people. Ms Reeves spent a lot of time in her speech talking about the need to invest right across the country. She is overhauling the Treasury's "Green Book" that assesses value for money for public projects to make sure that funding decisions don't just get concentrated in the South East but are weighted to the Midlands and the North. She also, in reiterating her commitment to her fiscal rule to not borrow to fund day-to-day government spending (the annual budgets for our schools, councils, courts, police, hospitals), sought to draw out the "choice" between Labour and Reform, as Labour seeks to capitalise on Mr Farage's decision last week to promise up to £80bn worth of new spending - including scrapping the two-child benefit cap and increasing winter fuel payments - while not explaining exactly how they could be paid for. Expect to hear lots more from Labour in the coming weeks about how Mr Farage is an iteration of Liz Truss, ready to pursue "fantasy economics" and trash the economy. Labour are gleeful that Mr Farage has opened up this line of attack and think it was an uncharacteristic political misstep from the Reform leader. Read more:We asked AI to do Rachel Reeves' job "Farage was a politician for vibes, now he's turned himself into a politician of policy and he didn't need to do that yet," observed one senior Labour figure. But if that is the sell, here is the sting. While the Chancellor has loosened her fiscal rules for capital spending, she is resolute she will not do the same when it comes to day-to-day departmental spending, and next week harsh cuts are on the way for some departments, with Yvette Cooper at the Home Office, Angela Rayner at local government, and Ed Miliband at energy still wrangling over their settlements. Ms Reeves was at pains in Rochdale to talk about the extra £190bn the government has put into day-to-day spending in this parliament in order to see off the charges of austerity as those spending cuts kick in. Her allies point to the £300bn in total Ms Reeves has poured into capital projects and public services over this parliament. "You just can't say we aren't a tax-and-spend government," said one ally. But this isn't just a chancellor fighting Mr Farage, she is also battling with those in her own party, under extreme pressure to loosen her fiscal rules, or tax more, as MPs - and her prime minister - demand she spends more on welfare and on getting the UK warfare-ready. You can see it all playing out. After a local election drubbing, the chancellor U-turned on her seemingly iron-clad decision to take the winter fuel allowance away from all pensioners. Now, I'm hearing that the prime minister is pressing to lift the two-child benefit cap (no matter his chief of staff is opposed to the idea, with the cap popular with voters) and MPs are demanding a reverse to some disability cuts (one government insider said the backbench revolt is real and could even force a defeat despite Sir Keir's whopping 165-strong working majority). Meanwhile, the prime minister is under pressure from US President Donald Trump for NATO to lift defence spending to 3.5% of GDP. Spending demands and rising borrowing costs, there is no wonder that attention is already moving towards possible tax rises in the Autumn budget. Ms Rayner, the deputy prime minister, wrote to the chancellor, arguing for targeted wealth taxes. Andy Burnham, the Greater Manchester mayor, told me this week on Electoral Dysfunction that he wanted more taxes on assets and a revaluation of council tax bands so those with large, valuable homes pay more. "We have not taxed assets and wealth properly and I'd come up with something that can be controversial but council tax has not been revalued since the early 90s so there are homes in London worth tens of millions of pounds that pay less council tax than many average properties here in Greater Manchester so I would look at reforms in that space," Mr Burnham told me this week. "I would look further at land taxation and land taxation reform. If you put in new infrastructure, what I learned through Crossrail, Elizabeth Line - you lift the values of that land. "So why don't we capture some of that uplift from that? I personally would go for a land value tax across the country. So there are things that you can do that I think can be seen to be fair, because we haven't taxed those things fairly. "I've said, and I'll say it again, we've overtaxed people's work and we've undertaxed people's assets and wealth and that balance should be put more right." I asked the chancellor on Wednesday if Ms Rayner and Mr Burnham had a point, and would she level with people that taxes might have to go up again as she struggles with spending demands and self-imposed borrowing constraints - she, of course, swerved the question and said the priority for her is to growth the economy. These questions will, I suspect, only get louder and more frequent in the run-up to the budget should borrowing costs continue to go up alongside demands for spending. The chancellor, at least, has a story to tell about rewiring the economy as a means to national renewal. But with the spoils of infrastructure investment perhaps decades off, Ms Reeves will find it hard to frame this spending review as a reboot for working people rather than a kicking for already stretched public services.
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Mayors make case for Liverpool-Manchester rail link
The mayors of Liverpool and Manchester have called on the government to commit to building a new railway line between the two cities which they say could cut travel time down to 20 minutes. Plans for the link were first revealed in May 2024 after the cancellation of HS2's northern leg. Steve Rotheram and Andy Burnham, the mayors of the Liverpool City Region and Greater Manchester, visited Westminster earlier to urge ministers to back the "Northern Arc" project with the aim of starting construction in the early 2030s. Rotherham said: "It's something that the people in the North quite rightly deserve because there's huge latent potential here." The government said it was "reviewing the position it has inherited" following the collapse of plans for high speed rail links in the North. The leaders presented a report by their combined authorities that said the new railway line could provide a £15bn boost to the economy and generate 22,000 jobs during construction alone. It argues the link would also strengthen international trade and supply chains and take more freight off the road. Another benefit highlighted in the report would be alleviating the "immense pressure" on the existing rail network, the mayors said. The report's authors said Manchester's four city centre stations were cumulatively the second busiest in the country outside London and the South East. Liverpool's stations ranked fourth busiest, with Liverpool Central the busiest underground station outside London, the report said. Rotheram said big changes would need to be made to Liverpool's existing stations, both of which were "bottlenecks" with limited platform and track capacity. Talking about the city's main Lime Street station, he said "this is not Harry Potter, there is not a secret hidden platform where we can keep adding new services". He said previous plans to increase Lime Street's capacity had not worked because there was simply not enough land to expand on. The mayors pointed out that the previous government had committed £17bn to a new Liverpool-Manchester line following the cancellation of high speed rail's northern links. Now they are asking the Labour administration to make good on that agreement and start work. Rotheram said journey times between the Liverpool and Manchester Airport could be reduced to just 20 minutes. Currently, the average train journey between Liverpool and Manchester takes 53 minutes for a distance of less than 40 miles, with services sometimes taking comfortably above one hour. "There's huge potential. It could realise a greater potential growth benefit for the UK economy than other projects in other parts of the country," the Labour mayor said. "The Northern Arc will cost considerably less than some of that infrastructure that's being built [elsewhere in the UK] so this is something that the government should do to balance up the economy of the country, but it's something that the people in the North quite rightly deserve because there's huge latent potential here." The Department for Transport said: "Transport is an essential part of our mission to rebuild Britain and drive economic growth. "That's why we're investing in the North and midlands, and delivering transformational projects, such as the multibillion-pound Transpennine Route Upgrade. "We are currently reviewing the position we have inherited on HS2, and will set out next steps in due course." Listen to the best of BBC Radio Merseyside on Sounds and follow BBC Merseyside on Facebook, X, and Instagram and watch BBC North West Tonight on BBC iPlayer. You can also send story ideas via Whatsapp to 0808 100 2230. Plan for new Liverpool-Manchester rail line revealed
BBC News
14-05-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Mayors make case for new Liverpool-Manchester rail link
The mayors of Liverpool and Manchester have called on the government to commit to building a new railway line between the two cities which they say could cut travel time down to 20 for the link were first revealed in May 2024 after the cancellation of HS2's northern Rotheram and Andy Burnham, the mayors of the Liverpool City Region and Greater Manchester, visited Westminster earlier to urge ministers to back the "Northern Arc" project with the aim of starting construction in the early said: "It's something that the people in the North quite rightly deserve because there's huge latent potential here." The government said it was "reviewing the position it has inherited" following the collapse of plans for high speed rail links in the North. 'Huge potential' The leaders presented a report by their combined authorities that said the new railway line could provide a £15bn boost to the economy and generate 22,000 jobs during construction argues the link would also strengthen international trade and supply chains and take more freight off the benefit highlighted in the report would be alleviating the "immense pressure" on the existing rail network, the mayors report's authors said Manchester's four city centre stations were cumulatively the second busiest in the country outside London and the South stations ranked fourth busiest, with Liverpool Central the busiest underground station outside London, the report said big changes would need to be made to Liverpool's existing stations, both of which were "bottlenecks" with limited platform and track capacity. Talking about the city's main Lime Street station, he said "this is not Harry Potter, there is not a secret hidden platform where we can keep adding new services". He said previous plans to increase Lime Street's capacity had not worked because there was simply not enough land to expand mayors pointed out that the previous government had committed £17bn to a new Liverpool-Manchester line following the cancellation of high speed rail's northern links. Now they are asking the Labour administration to make good on that agreement and start work. Rotheram said journey times between the Liverpool and Manchester Airport could be reduced to just 20 the average train journey between Liverpool and Manchester takes 53 minutes for a distance of less than 40 miles, with services sometimes taking comfortably above one hour."There's huge potential. It could realise a greater potential growth benefit for the UK economy than other projects in other parts of the country," the Labour mayor said."The Northern Arc will cost considerably less than some of that infrastructure that's being built [elsewhere in the UK] so this is something that the government should do to balance up the economy of the country, but it's something that the people in the North quite rightly deserve because there's huge latent potential here."The Department for Transport said: "Transport is an essential part of our mission to rebuild Britain and drive economic growth. "That's why we're investing in the North and midlands, and delivering transformational projects, such as the multibillion-pound Transpennine Route Upgrade."We are currently reviewing the position we have inherited on HS2, and will set out next steps in due course." Listen to the best of BBC Radio Merseyside on Sounds and follow BBC Merseyside on Facebook, X, and Instagram and watch BBC North West Tonight on BBC iPlayer. You can also send story ideas via Whatsapp to 0808 100 2230.
Daily Mirror
03-05-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mirror
BRIAN READE: The North does not need Northern Arc gimmicks... the South will soon come begging
Northern leaders were in London this week armed with begging bowls and arguments about why their people hold the key to growth. Metro mayors like Andy Burnham and Steve Rotheram told parliament of their plan for a 'Northern Arc' in which Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield and Leeds are joined up via modern transport links to form one huge economy, which would bring an extra £90billion in growth by 2040. But don't expect much of a response as we've been here before with John Prescott's 'Northern Way' and George Osborne's 'Northern Powerhouse' and it all went south. Literally. As the North hobbles along on Victorian railway lines and HS2 hits the buffers at Birmingham, London's airports, Tube and Overground systems have had billions lavished on them. And it feels that this perpetual sidelining of the North will only get worse, especially as a Labour government decides a growth corridor between Oxford and Cambridge is the nation's priority. But ever the optimist, I see some hope. In Mark Carney's victory speech, when the Canadian PM warned America to keep its sights off 'our land, our resources, our water'. Think about that final word. Canadians realise that as the world continues to boil, and Donald Trump continues to dig, baby, dig, water will become the new liquid gold and Washington will need to see it gushing down south in pipelines from rainy Canada. Following the premise that what America does today Britain does tomorrow, how soon before London, currently baking in its hottest ever start to May, thinks the same. The Environment Agency this week predicted that South East England faces a 2.5 billion-litre daily shortfall in its water supply within 25 years, which is nearly half of its current daily consumption. Can you imagine the havoc that will cause in Weybridge and Sevenoaks (where all the nation's decision-makers reside) as they stare at brown, lifeless gardens, debating whether to tell the staff to use up emergency supplies of bottled Acqua Panna? Think of the horror in Ascot kitchens as the barista machine, like the outside Jacuzzi, cannot function. How will the people of Tring get rid of bird crap on their BMWs? How will Surrey golf courses cope if bores can't tell the difference between the fairway and the green, or access ice for their 19th-hole G&Ts? Imagine the shame when the drought police make dawn raids in Tunbridge Wells to round up those found filling their swimming pools? Of course, we know what will happen. Westminster will sanction the emergency laying of pipes from Scotland, Snowdonia, the Lakes and the Pennines, to get water to the people who really matter. Which is when Northern leaders, who will finally hold all the cards, should refuse to comply and threaten to sabotage any pipelines. Then demand that if the South wants their liquid gold they should come and get it. By moving up here, bringing their wealth, investment, firms, jobs, transport systems and yachts. By relocating Westminster, Whitehall, the BBC, the City, even the King. Then finally our leaders won't need to go to London with begging bowls selling gimmicks like the Northern Arc to the permanently disinterested. Because the North will be one huge arc floating on our God-given water and we can tell Southern decision-makers if they accept our demands we'll let them climb aboard, two by two. The future's dry. The future's Northern.
