Prime Minister Andy Burnham is pressing the Treasury to provide more funding for infrastructure projects in Northern England, arguing that without increased financial support, planned developments in the region will stall. Burnham, formerly the Greater Manchester mayor, has voiced frustration over the repeated cancellations and delays of major projects critical to Northern regeneration, notably the scrapping of the high-speed rail extension to Manchester.
Burnham’s concerns reflect longstanding grievances outlined in the book *Head North*, co-authored with Steve Rotheram, mayor of Liverpool. The book emphasizes the economic and social disparities between the North and South of England, portraying the region’s underinvestment as a pressing issue that demands corrective national policy. Burnham has accused the government of betrayal, highlighting the reversal of commitments made under previous Conservative leadership, including those by former chancellor George Osborne and former prime minister Boris Johnson.
The decision by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to cancel the Manchester leg of the HS2 project, announced in Manchester itself, has been especially galling to Burnham, who described it as a breach of trust and a lack of consultation with local stakeholders. Burnham questioned whether any government should have the authority to unilaterally halt such large-scale infrastructure programs, given their long-term impact on communities and economies beyond the lifespan of an individual administration.
Criticism extends beyond HS2 to encompass other stalled or troubled projects such as the Northern Powerhouse Rail, Heathrow’s third runway, the Lower Thames Crossing, and Hinkley Point C nuclear power station. Burnham and others contend that the repeated failures have damaged the UK’s international reputation and hindered efforts to raise living standards across the country.
Burnham has been joined in his calls for reform by Sir John Armitt, chair of the Public Private Partnership Commission and former head of the National Infrastructure Commission. Armitt advocates for the creation of an independent body akin to the Office for Budget Responsibility but focused solely on infrastructure, to oversee the effective and transparent allocation of public funds for economic and social projects. He stresses that infrastructure investment is essential to national renewal and economic competitiveness, warning that failure to address these issues risks continuing decline.
Armitt’s 2013 review on long-term infrastructure planning proposed such an independent entity, aiming to insulate infrastructure decision-making from short-term political considerations and Treasury orthodoxy. Burnham and Rotheram have challenged the Treasury’s traditional approach to evaluating infrastructure investments, arguing that rigid cost-benefit analyses often fail to capture the broader regional and social benefits of transformative projects.
As the Labour Party gathers for its conference in Liverpool, infrastructure funding and Northern regeneration are expected to be central themes, with Burnham likely to press for a more equitable distribution of resources and a reimagined approach to national infrastructure planning.