MANCHESTER 1

[eye2eye5]

Northern Powerhouse

For me, the salient line in the MEN article is that after some 18 months, no new money has been made available. It's simply a rebadging of existing funding at a time when we are being softened up to provide who knows how much for Heathrow expansion, Crossrail 2, Ornamental Bridges, etc etc.

If Northern Powerhouse isn't to become another failed project then it needs funding urgently with new money. I have little confidence that it will be.

And yes, it does need to be far more inclusive as from St Helens it still appears to be a Manchester vanity project. Manchester Airport is indeed very well placed to act as the central gateway to the North and I applaud and support the development of long haul routes. However, if as is suggested by a number of posters here Manchester should also Hoover up the short haul routes as well, it does little to allocate wealth more evenly across the North. It simply turns Manchester into a little London.