North has missed out on £63bn over 10 years due to chronic underfunding, thinktank says

Transport gap: London gets £419 more per head than north of England

Transport spending in London has continued to dramatically increase at the expense of other parts of the country, according to an analysis of the latest government figures.

From 2016 to 2017 spending in the capital rose by 11.4%, compared to a 3.6% fall in the north of England, according to the thinktank IPPR North.

Over the last 10 years, Londoners enjoyed an annual average of £708 of transport spending per person, while just £289 was spent for each person in the north of England, the analysis found.

If the north had received the same per capita amount as London, over the last decade the region would have benefited from £63bn more in transport investment, IPPR North says.

In 2016-17 alone the north of England would have received £9bn more for transport projects if it was funded to the same level as London.

A plan submitted to the government earlier this year estimated it would cost £69bn to bring transport in the north of England up to scratch. The proposal by Transport for the North (TfN) – a statutory advisory body – includes building “Northern Powerhouse Rail”, a brand new trans-Pennine railway from Liverpool to Leeds.

The National Infrastructure Commission recently recognised the new line as a potential flagship project and estimated that £24bn of investment was needed.

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If given the green light by the government, the line would bring an estimated £92bn of benefits to the UK economy by 2050, according to TfN.

Previous IPPR North analyses showed that 2.6 times more transport spending per capita was due to go to London, compared to the north of England. This disparity swells to five times more when compared with the regions of Yorkshire and the Humber, or the north-east.

Luke Raikes, a senior research fellow at IPPR North, said: “These new figures lay bare the regional imbalance in our economy. They show how much public investment has gone into London over the years, which has supported London’s growth.

“They also show that London and the south-east have paid more tax than the other regions, which is partly due to all UK taxpayers spending decades paying for its infrastructure. But instead of simplistic arguments over which region ‘subsidises’ the other, we must learn the lesson that public investment can support regional growth, and apply that lesson to all of our regions, not just the capital.”

IPPR North based its analysis on Office for National Statistics data published on Wednesday.

A spokeswoman for the Department for Transport said: “This government is spending over £13bn – more than any other in history – to transform northern transport by 2020, boosting economic growth and unlocking the incredible potential of the great towns and cities of the north.

“Our analysis of planned central government transport investment shows that the spending for the north will receive more investment per person (£1,039) than the south (£1,029) over the years 2017-18 to 2020-21.

“These figures from IPPR North include net spending by Transport for London, which from 2017-18 onwards receives no central government funding support.”

