HS2’s massive funding allocation overshadows all other railway investment commitments announced by Chancellor Rachel Reeves in her Spending Review.
Reeves committed £3.5bn to the Transpennine route upgrade and £2.5bn for East-West rail as part of the Spending Review.
The Chancellor also outlined plans to advance the UK’s ambitions for Northern Powerhouse Rail, the Liverpool-Manchester rail route known as ‘High Speed 3’.
In total, the government has set aside £10.3bn for investment into railway enhancement projects, not including HS2.
The highly controversial high-speed railway project connecting London and Birmingham is set to receive more than double that amount on its own, with £25.3bn agreed as part of a four-year settlement, as reported by City AM.
“This funding will support the full reset of the HS2 programme under the leadership of the new chief executive, addressing longstanding delivery challenges,” the government stated.
Details of how Northern Powerhouse Rail will be funded will be disclosed in the Infrastructure Strategy, and are heavily reliant on the outcome of a review into HS2’s costs.
Reeves indicated her plans for the scheme would be detailed “in the coming weeks”.
The Department for Transport (DfT)’s total settlement provides funding of £31.5bn between 2028 to 2029.
Capital investment will increase by an average real terms growth rate of 3.9 per cent per year over the next five years, excluding spending on HS2.
The Transpennine Route Upgrade is set to slash journey times between Manchester and Leeds from 55 to 41 minutes, with completion anticipated by the early 2030s.
Meanwhile, the East-West Rail project will create a link between Oxford and Cambridge for the first time since the 1960s.
Reeves acknowledged the input from local MPs, stating she had “heard the representations of … members for Milton Keynes North, Milton Keynes Central, and Buckingham & Bletchley.”
She added: “And I can tell the House today, to connect Oxford and Cambridge, and to back Milton Keynes’ leading tech sector, I am providing a further £2.5bn for the continued delivery of East-West rail.”
The High Speed Rail Group said the commitment to HS2 funding represents a significant milestone, described as an “important step forward in rebuilding confidence and certainty around Britain’s biggest infrastructure project.”
They added: “This sort of funding agreement creates the platform from which HS2 and its suppliers can carry out the much needed ‘reset’ of the project and bring clarity on both anticipated costs and programme.
“With this certainty in place the supply chain will now work with HS2 Ltd to drive the productivity improvements the project needs and the government reasonably demand.”
