In a move that could be great news for the North of England as well as the construction sector in the UK, George Osborne has announced Sir David Higgins will produce an action plan ahead of the Autumn Statement.

The proposal for HS3 has been widely welcomed by business which Osborne argues would create a ‘Northern global powerhouse’ by increasing interconnectivity between the two cities and reducing the travelling time from 1 hour to 30 minutes.

This is timely news as the Office for National Statistics recent reported over the last 10 years the North has lost more than 5% of its share of the UK’s national output.

Unfortunately Liverpool will not feature in this initial stage of HS3 which could have offered the most joined up connectivity between the North’s major cities, creating the Northern Hub city many have been arguing for.

The move follows mounting pressure from various organisations and pundits to encourage the government to rebalance the economy, which many argue has become too London centric. There is even an argument that Junction 22 of the M62 should be the site for the biggest new town development in the UK to increase interconnectivity through a commuter town between the North’s two engine economies.

In the meantime it’s likely HS3 will take several decades to implement and with an estimated cost of £7 billion the government will want to make sure the desired economic gain can be achieved.