Business leaders urge government to back northern England rail

The group, which is known as the Northern Powerhouse Partnership and chaired by former chancellor George Osborne, is particularly urging the government to re-commit to the 'Northern Powerhouse Rail' project, also known as HS3. Plans for a high-speed rail link between the cities of northern England were first announced by Osborne as part of his Budget speech in March 2016.

In a letter to the government, Osborne said that there was "no geographical reason" why, with better transport connections, the north of England would not be seen as "a big enough urban population to attract global interest".

"Behind the slogan lies a compelling economic concept: if you better connect the cities of the north together, the whole will be bigger than the individual parts - and they will attract more business and create more jobs," he said.

"This new railway would transform the northern economy. It would bring seven million more people – and three times the number of businesses – within a 90 minute journey time of one of our great northern cities … The Northern Powerhouse rail fits with the government's stated objective of building an economy that works for everyone. If this isn't part of an industrial strategy, then what is?" he said.

The business group is calling on the government to publish initial plans for high speed rail links across the north alongside the autumn Budget. This should begin with a line across the Pennines between Manchester and Leeds, but ultimately stretch between Liverpool and Hull. The government should also incorporate planning for future northern connections when it publishes the design for 'Phase 2b' of HS2, from Crewe to Manchester and the West Midlands to Leeds, later this year, according to the letter.

Theresa May is due to visit the north east of England on Wednesday, where she will explicitly support northern rail as part of a wider programme of regional transport investment, according to the Financial Times. Meanwhile, transport secretary Chris Grayling has said that regional governments will be required to "take control" of their own transport needs.

"Although one of my biggest priorities as secretary of state is to build the transport links the North needs to thrive, they must be designed and managed by the North itself," he wrote in the Yorkshire Post this week.

"It is central government's responsibility to provide funding and a delivery structure that ensures efficiency, value for money and accountability. But beyond this, I want the North to take control ... By setting up Transport for the North and backing the election of metro mayors, we have given the North greater autonomy and control, and a powerful voice to articulate the case for new transport projects," he said.

Transport expert Nigel Blundell of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said that efforts to upgrade the UK's ageing infrastructure "need to be nationwide" in order to be successful.

"A balanced economy requires significant investment in the north of England," he said. "Network Rail has identified schemes that will deliver the necessary upgrades - most notably, the so-called 'west of Leeds' upgrade of the Transpennine line - but funding remains in doubt in light of recent announcements by the transport secretary."

"The government needs to decide how best to divide its pot of funding for transport upgrades between the regions, not just in the north. Regional upgrades cannot be delivered in isolation, as the difficulties around full electrification in the north show," he said.