Support for the North and Midlands: £4.7 billion local transport fund launched

 Today the government launched the new £4.7 billion Local Transport Fund for the North and Midlands, reallocating savings from HS2 to invest more in the transport schemes that matter most to people.

• In October the Prime Minister set out a new vision, to focus on the journeys that matter most to people, that drive growth and jobs and truly level up our country. He committed to take every pound that would have been spent extending HS2 and invest £36 billion into transport. 

• This means that today the government can invest a record £4.7 billion through the new Local Transport Fund, providing almost 11 million people across the region with almost nine times more transport funding. This is the first transport budget of its kind for our smaller cities, towns and rural areas. It will pay for the infrastructure communities truly want: building new roads; improving road junctions and pavements; installing or expanding tram lines; improving stations.

• The Conservatives are sticking to our plan to level up communities with greater transport links right across the UK for a brighter future, unlike the Labour Party who have no plan when it comes to regional transport and will take us back to square one.

We will do this by: 

• Reallocating £36 billion from HS2 to invest in transport projects across the whole country. Every penny committed to the Northern leg of HS2 will be reinvested in the North, every penny from the Midlands in the Midlands, and every penny from the new arrangement from Euston to the rest of the country. (DfT, Policy Paper, 4 October 2023, link).

• Extending the national £2 maximum bus fare to help passengers save on their regular travel costs. The cap will remain in place to 31 December 2024 and will take total government investment to cap bus fares to nearly £600 million since January 2023. (DfT, Guidance, 19 December 2022, link).

• Supporting up to 24 million miles of bus services across the country with a downpayment on £1 billion of investment. In October, areas across the North and Midlands received extra support under the Bus Service Improvement Plans to make bus services more frequent, more reliable, cheaper and easier to use.  (DfT, Transparency Data, 23 October 2023, link).

• Setting out our record £8.3 billion road resurfacing fund, with the first £150 million already delivered to local authorities. In November, long term funding was provided to help resurface over 5,000 miles of roads across the country over the next 11 years.   (DfT, Press Release, 17 November 2023, link).