The leader of East Riding Council has quizzed the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves on £300m of funding that was ‘promised’ to Hull and East Yorkshire.
After Ms Reeves’ appearance at the 2024 Great Northern Conference hosted in Hull, the leader of East Riding Council, Conservative, Anne Handley asked the Labour Chancellor: “As a part of the settlement when HS2 got cancelled, we were offered, an extra £300m. Can you let me know if that is something you are going to support going forward? It was promised.”
The funding in question was announced by the previous Conservative Government as a part of the Network North scheme which sought to reallocate funding from the scrapped northern leg of HS2.
The then Transport Secretary, Mark Harper, claimed the funding would be “truly game changing” for towns and cities in the north. As plenty has changed since the funding was announced, not least Mr Harper no longer being an MP let alone the Transport Secretary, Cllr Handley wanted to get confirmation that the new Government would honour the promise.
Ms Reeves said: “I’ll have to let Angela Rayner set out the details in due course, but I absolutely take your point.” As well as being the Deputy Prime Minister, Ms Rayner is the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities, and Local Government and is expected to announce a new white paper setting out the Government’s approach to devolution and local government by the end of the year.
By: Andrew Spence, LDRS
