Northern Powerhouse Rail

Lord Liddle Excerpts

Monday 19th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill (Lab)]

The £45 billion is in 2026 pounds. I think the noble Lord will recognise that, for example, we have been accounting for HS2 in 2019 prices for a number of years, which is clearly a ridiculous proposition. I expect GBR to take responsibility for much of this, except that the Government may well decide to deliver building a brand new route between Liverpool and Manchester separately, as with East West Rail. We have to regard the whole thing as part of the national railway network and not as something dreamt up, delivered from Mars and imposed on the railway, with the consequent loss of connectivity and the ability to change trains at stations for all the journeys people want to make.

[Lord Liddle (Lab)]

My Lords, I accept the incrementalism of the plan, but can the Minister give us a little more detail about how it will be managed? What will be the role of the northern mayors? Is funding to be solely from the Treasury, or will it be regionally based? Are the Government exploring how the railway can benefit from the development value of the surrounding land, which will then increase greatly in value?

[Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill (Lab)]

I thank my noble friend for raising a really important point. First, the mayors are party to the proposal, and there is a compact with each of them in the northern growth corridor. This is really important, because previous proposals have been done to those mayors and not with them. They play an important role because, as it says in the announcement, although there is a funding cap, which has been discussed already, they should have the ability to change or improve the specification in line with the aspirations for their region’s economy, jobs and homes. If they do, they should be able to raise some money, and the Government are going to pursue that with them discussions.

The noble Lord is right that one of the underused features of infrastructure funding so far is not buying into the inevitable rise in value of the land. One of the most difficult things to witness and not comment on is that, as you approach Birmingham, the skyline is full of cranes and buildings but none of the owners or developers of the land has paid a penny towards the railway. That cannot be right.