Osborne plans economic boost for key northern constituencies before election
The second of two autumn statement stories – what about some wider investment in rural communities? That would be a turn up for the books – this story has a snippet of comfort on that score but largely reiterates the city mentality of the Westminster machine – it tells us:
In his autumn statement, he extended his support for the region with about £235m to create new materials science institutes across the four cities.
Manchester will also be helped to create a £78m new performance space, to be called The Factory in homage to the 1980s club, and Osborne confirmed plans to tender new franchises for Northern Rail and the TransPennine Express, which is forecast to increase capacity by at least 20%. The announcements come on top of the chancellor’s previous promises of new roads in northern England, a regional shale gas sovereign wealth fund and an HS3 high-speed rail track between Manchester and Leeds.
The moves are seen as an effort to make sure the recovery is not just concentrated in south-east England, but are also part of a political calculation by Osborne that the Conservatives desperately need to hold on to voters in the north, where there are some key marginal constituencies.
Many of the benefits of Osborne’s northern plan will go to the Labour-voting cities. However, there are also advantages for counties with Tory-voting pockets such as Lancashire and Cheshire. In the Conservative constituency of Weaver Vale in Lancashire, where Tory MP Graham Evans holds a majority against Labour of just 991, £113m has been allocated to a big data research centre at Hartree.