Northern Powerhouse ?
Investment?
My God how impressionable people are !
It's like the BBC reporter on referendum night suggesting it will be a remain because of massive investment in the N East. ...
"£90m over 7 years" WOW.....
The general populus must have taken a collective deep sigh.
For balance that buys you about 2 mile of dual carriageway, massive investment indeed !!!!
So lets put this firmly to bed.
Here is a list of the Central Government investment in the NP below...
...
...
...
...
...
Yup one big fat zero !
HS2, RW3 should NOT be mentioned in same breath !
... lots of rhetoric and yes much welcome cajoling of business behind the seems but let's get the record straight on this one the investment from Central Government was crumbs.....
Some fiddling of cash for smart motorways, they being the ones so bloody smart we don't actually widen them...oh and a divert of £200m from the Highways Agency for a "consultation document " on a Sheffield -Manchester tunnel. No actual JCBs
That documentation is now in Sir Humphreys bottom draw I suspect!
Yes the initiatives were great, yes The North was mentioned in trade missions with the PM and Osborne holding the beacon, yes Manchester is now firmly on the map in China and the whole NorthernPowerhouse project has enough traction to be used as wipping stick if the next ministers don't start delivering up here...
but don't get carried away with any gravytrain of spend like the South East :
The Channel Tunnel
Elizabethan Tunnel
Olympic Village
Thameslink
BankUndergnd
This little Lot cost £80 billion YES that's billion NOT million!
Investment in infastructure up North compared to the SE is about 1%.
....maybe the peasants were misguided but THAT is partly the reason why both parties are now in the mire!
Last edited by Bagso; 26th Jun 2016 at 14:11.