The NorthernPowerhouse
PR machine from Whitehall appears to be doing its job admirably in some quarters by suggesting the government is pouring billions of pounds of investment into The North....DON'T FALL FOR THE SPIN !
It's NOT, its zero in terms of "special on off funding" .
There has been some "window dressing" but these are not much more than yearly maintenance budgets which have been tweeked by the Minister who "happens to be visiting the North this week" to tie in with the NP narrative, in most cases they amount to the basic minimum required to keep our crumbling road and rail infastructure moving ..........just!
Heathrow £12bn. .....possibly £18bn
HS2 £40bn, £50bn who knows, it goes up everyday
Hinckley see above
NorthernPowerhouse probably £1bn.
All the other impetus re grand schemes has come 100% from private money.
Eg
Liverpool Ports Gateway. Peel Holdings
Salford Port. Peel Holdings
Manchester. Purely foreign investment in the dozen plus 30storey+ scrapers.
Manchester Airport and Sheffield. Chinese investment.
NO we don't want the Heathrow money but a few crumbs thrown our way to confim we are one island and part of the UK and this "free and fair society " would be welcome.
As taxpayers we do want checks and balances. No different to the now FIVE yes that's FIVE requests from the Chair Of The Treasury Select Committee (Andrew Tyrie, Con) asking for answers on Heathrow financing.
So what would his agenda be ?