‘Network North’ pledge as Sunak promises UK ‘change’

The ‘Network North’ commitment was a central component of Sunak’s speech at the Conservative party conference in Manchester on Wednesday. Sunak also announced plans to introduce a rolling legal age-increase for the purchase of tobacco, a new long-term workforce plan for the NHS, and a single qualification for school leavers in England called the Advanced British Standard, which will combine A-Levels and T-Levels into one.

HS2 is a new high speed rail network that is proposed in England. The plans will see construction currently underway of a new line between London and Birmingham – previously known as phase 1 – completed. Plans to extend HS2 from the East Midlands to Leeds were previously scrapped, and now phases 2A and 2B of the project, which would have extended HS2 from Birmingham to Manchester and from Birmingham to the East Midlands, have also been dropped.

Among the transport projects included in the ‘Network North’ initiative are existing plans to better link-up Manchester and Liverpool, a new Midlands Rail Hub to connect 50 stations, a new Leeds tram service, and upgrades to the A1, A2, A5 and M6 roads.

Planning law expert Robbie Owen of Pinsent Masons said: “The PM pledged that the £36bn due to have been spent on HS2 phase 2B will now go on a wide range of other transport projects in the Midlands and the North. The complexity of government funding will make it very hard to trace this pledge through to each of the replacement projects.”

“Many of the replacement projects will take years to work up ready for approval and then construction – just as the parliamentary Bill for HS2 Phase 2B has been in preparation for over 10 years and was not expected to get Royal Assent until 2025. There will be very few quick wins – we can expect Northern Powerhouse Rail, for example, to take at least five years to come out of the ashes of HS2 Phase 2B and to be approved before it is ready for construction contracts to be let,” he said.

Transport infrastructure expert Jonathan Hart, also of Pinsent Masons, added that the time and disruption associated with the Network North initiative could have knock on effects for existing contractual arrangements related to the remaining elements of the HS2 project and other Network Rail projects.

Owen highlighted that some of the government’s revised transport infrastructure proposals will be funded by the “rescoping” of plans that had been outlined for Euston station in London as part of the planned construction of HS2 between London and Birmingham.

In a paper providing more detail of the government’s plans for Network North, the Department for Transport said: “We are going to strip back the project and deliver a station that works, and that can be open and running trains as soon as possible, and which has the leadership in place to deliver maximum value to the taxpayer. We will not provide a tunnel between Euston and Euston Square underground station or design features we do not need. Instead we will deliver a six-platform station which can accommodate the trains we will run to Birmingham and onwards and which best supports regeneration of the local area. That is how we properly unlock the opportunities the new station offers, while radically reducing its costs.”

The DfT said the changes will save £6.5bn.

The paper went on to refer to a much more ambitious redevelopment scheme for Euston in conjunction with building the pared back HS2 proposals: “We will appoint a development company, separate from HS2 Ltd, to manage the delivery of this project. We will also take on the lessons of success stories such as Battersea Power Station and Nine Elms, which secured £9 billion of private sector investment and thousands of homes. So we will harness the future growth that the station will unleash to support its development, to ensure we get the best possible value for the British taxpayer – and ensure that funding is underpinned by contributions from those people and businesses its development supports. At the same time, we are considerably upping the ambition of the Euston redevelopment, where we will be looking to establish a Development Corporation to create a transformed ‘Euston Quarter’ – potentially offering up to 10,000 homes.”

Owen commented that this and the wider Network North initiative also had to be considered in the context of wider efforts ongoing within the UK government to make it easier, and faster, to deliver major infrastructure projects – including proposed planning policy reforms relevant to ‘nationally significant infrastructure projects’ (NSIPs). In its paper, the DfT alluded to there being further action to follow: “In the months ahead, we will set out a broader reform programme to speed up planning, decision-making and delivery for big infrastructure projects – ensuring that we tackle congestion, over-crowding and modernising our transport infrastructure even more quickly in the future.”

“We will review transport infrastructure legislation (including the Transport and Works Act 1992, the Highways Act 1980, and thresholds within the Planning Act 2008) with a view to ensuring that it supports proportionate processes for consenting to road and rail schemes, and is up to date and ready to meet the demands of modern infrastructure delivery as we take this work forward,” it added.

Owen commented that these proposals for further reform were rightly focussed on decision-making and delivery as well as planning and consenting. It was important, he said, to look at the requirements for end-to-end delivery of projects rather than just focussing on one element of the process.

Public policy expert Andrew Henderson of Pinsent Masons, who was in attendance at the Conservative party conference in Manchester, said the prime minister’s speech took on additional relevance since it is likely to be his last one during party conference season before the next UK General Election.

Henderson said: “While the party has yet to unveil its overarching theme for the General Election, the likely direction of this was evident: not to buckle to the party’s right and cut taxes – yet, at least – instead focusing on reducing inflation; a focus on delivery; and positioning Sunak as the change candidate against Labour’s Keir Starmer – a challenging path to walk for a party that has been in power for 13 years.”

"This was almost certainly the final Conservative conference before the next General Election. Since Sunak became prime minister, the consensus had been that October 2024 would be the time at which he would go to the country. However, there is an increasing possibility of the election being called sooner, in May 2024. Concern around the risks inherent in waiting until the last politically acceptable moment to call the election – akin to John Major and Gordon Brown’s choices – is a strong driver of current thinking. Moreover, a further driver towards May would be the ready supply of local council candidates in place to campaign for the party,” he said.