A big fat zero for North transport

Jan 24 2008 by Adrian Pearson, The Journal

THE North-East has suffered a double-whammy after cash diverted to a London train project triggered a £1.6bn pay day for Scotland – while the region continues to beg for extra transport money.

The Government has been asked to explain a “London bias” that has seen billions of cash invested in a Southern transport scheme while the North suffers the damaging twin effects of under-investment and increasing congestion.

The £16bn London Crossrail project is preparing to raid a multi-billion-pound transport improvement pot which could have been used to invest in North-East roads.

And under an archaic funding formula, spending on the Crossrail project will automatically see £1.6bn sent to Scotland and a further £1.3bn split between Wales and Northern Ireland.

The money is generated by the Barnett Formula which ties the Government into committing a proportionate share of any increase in English spending to other parts of Britain.

The Barnett formula means that despite the North-East having a vocal campaign for transport investment, cash has to be sent north of the border without the Scots having to outline detailed reasons for it.

Berwick MP Alan Beith said the Government had to start showing a commitment to the region. He added: “The Barnett formula needs to be overhauled and extended to include the North-East, as we face a significant disadvantage in the allocation of regional funding.”

In Parliament this week David Clelland, one of the region’s biggest transport advocates, told ministers to stop overlooking the North. The Tyne Bridge MP said: “When the North-East remains cut off from the nation’s motorway system, when it is more than 22 years since the last major improvement to the Gateshead Western Bypass, which is our region’s most congested road, and when the department continues to pour cold water on the idea of a high-speed rail link, does the minister understand why there is more than just a raising of eyebrows when we see billions of pounds being invested in transport infrastructure in London?”

Transport Minister Rosie Winterton said she is “well aware of the strength of feeling in the North-East” and insisted cash was being provided for the region’s transport priorities.

She added: “Overall, departmental spending in the North-East has increased by more than 80% in the past six years. Some £457m has been provisionally allocated to fund major schemes in the North-East.”

“We recently announced £245m of funding over the next three years for local authorities throughout the North-East region.”

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Where we could spend the money

HOW could the £1.6bn going to Scotland have benefited the North- East?

Dualling the A1 would cost a mere £225m – eating away at only a small portion of the figure.

Plans to reopen the Leamside line and run a new train service from Newcastle to Teesside via Washington would cost only £65m.

Meanwhile, outside transport, Hexham Hospital cost £28m – meaning you could build 57 similar units around the region for £1.6bn.

An expansion of North-East healthcare is planned for 2010 under a £300m project called Transforming the Newcastle Hospitals, which will see all acute services move from the General to the RVI and the Freeman Hospital.

And you could wipe out the losses felt by grass-roots sports clubs in the North-East – with £93m now due to be diverted into the pot paying for the Olympics.

Around £140m was spent fighting crime in the North-East during the last recorded year – not even 10% of the total.

Indeed, all the progress represented in the above list costs just over £850m – little more than half what Scotland will receive.

• THE Barnett formula which results in taxpayers’ cash being automatically diverted to Scotland has been slammed by its namesake.

Lord Barnett has called for the eponymous system to be scrapped as cash continues to be sent to Scotland regardless of any perceived need.

In a BBC interview last week, Lord Barnett said: "It made life a little easier for me, and the constant problems I had in cutting public expenditure ... I never anticipated it would last very long."

He added that he believes the formula has survived because successive prime ministers have been too afraid of upsetting the Scots and the Welsh and said expenditure-per- head is "clearly unfair" to parts of England.