Gordon Brown refuses to guarantee transport budgets

Jul 1 2009 by William Green, The Journal

FEARS of spending cuts in regional transport budgets were last night ratcheted up after Gordon Brown refused to guarantee their future.

North MPs have already warned cuts will hit regional transport spending hardest while multi-billion schemes in the South move ahead.

Transport Secretary Lord Adonis has failed to offer protection to regional budgets. Business Secretary Lord Mandelson on Monday also announced cuts in the Department for Transport budget to pay for new housing.

And the Prime Minister failed to guarantee the future of regional transport budgets when specifically asked about them yesterday ahead of a visit to the region on Thursday.

He was questioned whether Northern cities are being starved of cash while money is ploughed into new rail links in London and for the Olympics.

Mr Brown failed to answer the question, instead saying: “I think it is important to recognise that spending on transport is up nearly 100% in real terms over the last 12 years. A lot of that investment has been in the railways.”

But he appeared confused about plans for new rail carriages to ease overcrowding, which have not yet come into service.

“And there are an extra 1,300 rail carriages around the country. Spending on rail in 2007-08 was over £2bn more than it was in 1997.