This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The vast majority of businesses in the north of England want the government to continue with HS2 and to build a new east-west link from Liverpool to Hull, research suggests.

A total of 5,000 businesses of all sizes were asked for their view on the benefits to business of Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR), a £39bn transpennine rail line that would link to HS2, the hotly contested high-speed route from London to Leeds and Manchester via Birmingham.

Various Conservative party leadership contenders, including Boris Johnson, have pledged to scrap HS2 if they win. But northern businesses overwhelmingly support both HS2 and NPR, according to the findings set out in a report, Backing Northern Powerhouse Rail, by the law firm Addleshaw Goddard and the Northern Powerhouse Partnership thinktank.

The research found:

99% of firms believe NPR would raise productivity in the northern powerhouse zone.

85% believe NPR would increase inward investment.

75% say a commitment to deliver NPR would help them to make investment decisions.

62% would recruit from a wider geographic area.

43% would look to expand or relocate to encourage growth.

The government is considering a strategic outline business case for NPR. The line would increase the number of people able to reach four or more northern cities within an hour from 10,000 today to 1.3 million, according to its architects, Transport for the North (TfN).

Transport spending in London still twice northern England's Read more

TfN’s chairman, John Cridland, said: “Ambitions on this scale aren’t delivered overnight. We need the communities and businesses of the north to continue championing the critical need for such investment as the programme gains momentum.”

The rail minister, Andrew Jones, said the government should build both high-speed lines. “It’s brilliant to see widespread business support for NPR and a recognition of the importance of linking it to HS2. When it comes to NPR and HS2, it isn’t an either/or situation. The north needs both to increase capacity, transform connectivity and unlock economic potential.”

The government has announced proposed tweaks to the second phase of HS2, running from Birmingham to Leeds via the East Midlands, and from Crewe to Manchester. The refinements include additional rail infrastructure and junctions between planned NPR and HS2 routes.

The transport minister, Nusrat Ghani, said the proposals, now out for consultation, marked “another major milestone for HS2 … to ensure that the route offers the best value for taxpayers’ money as well as minimising disruption for residents and impacts on the environment.”

Two proposed junctions could allow the HS2 line into Manchester to be used as part of NPR and open up a new route between Manchester and Liverpool.

On Wednesday Liz Truss, the chief secretary to the Treasury, said her department was taking a serious look “for the first time” at whether HS2 could be delivered within its £56bn budget. She told the House of Lords economic affairs committee that the next prime minister would decide whether to go ahead with planned infrastructure projects, including HS2.

In March a report from the left-leaning New Economics Foundation said 40% of the benefits of HS2 would go to London and that the £56bn budget would be better spent on upgrading the existing network and smaller-scale local projects.