MPs warn Northern Powerhouse Rail risks becoming “another HS2” without delivery reset
The government’s £45bn programme needs stronger governance, tighter cost control, and a credible delivery plan, the Public Accounts Committee has warned.
The scheme is to be delivered in three phases, with the first focusing on improving connections on existing lines between Sheffield and Leeds, Leeds and York, and Leeds and Bradford.
In parallel, development work on reopening the Leamside Line in the North East will progress.
Subsequent phases include a new rail route between Liverpool and Manchester via Manchester Airport and Warrington, followed by further upgrades to cross-Pennine connections between Manchester, Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield, and York.
The report states there is “considerable uncertainty” over the flagship rail programme despite more than 12 years of development, with major questions still unanswered over scope, procurement, routes and affordability.
The committee said it was “not confident” the DfT had learned the lessons from HS2 and warned there was a “clear risk” the full programme could not be delivered within the Treasury’s £45bn funding cap.
While welcoming the government’s renewed commitment to NPR through its Northern Growth Strategy, MPs said the programme remains at an early stage despite first being announced in 2014.
Key decisions, including the final route, delivery arrangements and integration with wider transport investment, have yet to be made.
Funding cap questioned
The PAC raised serious concerns over the decision to impose a £45bn funding cap before the scheme has been fully designed or costed.
It said the DfT has “no convincing plan” for controlling expenditure, prioritising investment or managing inevitable trade-offs if costs increase.
MPs also questioned the role of HS2 Ltd in developing cost estimates for parts of the programme, citing the company’s poor record on cost forecasting and delivery.
The committee has called on HM Treasury to explain how it arrived at the £45bn figure, while urging the DfT to publish a clear strategy showing how spending will be controlled, how benefits will be prioritised and what elements of the programme could be cut if budgets come under pressure.
Governance “echoes” HS2
The report argues that governance arrangements remain inadequate for a programme expected to run for more than two decades.
Although the DfT has established working arrangements with mayoral authorities, MPs warned there are no formal structures for joint decision-making across Whitehall departments, despite the programme’s reliance on bodies including HM Treasury and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
The PAC said this mirrors the weak governance seen during the early stages of HS2, which it argues contributed to many of the project’s long-term problems.
It has called on the DfT to explain within six months whether NPR should be formally managed as a government mega-project and demonstrate that its governance arrangements are robust enough to manage future funding and scope decisions.
Delivery risks remain
The committee also questioned how Northern Powerhouse Rail will fit alongside existing rail investment programmes.
While parts of the West Coast Main Line are expected to reach capacity during the 2030s, key NPR infrastructure is not expected to be completed until the mid-2040s, leaving uncertainty over how the DfT intends to bridge the gap.
MPs also warned that local transport plans across the route remain insufficiently integrated, raising concerns that wider regeneration and economic growth objectives could be undermined.
The report calls on the department to demonstrate how NPR will support wider transport investment while ensuring lessons from HS2, the TransPennine Route Upgrade and other major infrastructure programmes are consistently embedded across the organisation.
The PAC concludes that Northern Powerhouse Rail has the potential to transform connectivity across the North, but says success will depend on far stronger project controls than those currently in place.
We must be one of the most over-bureaucratised countries in the western world. And all that bureaucracy, paying consultants, stalling, carrying out surveys… doesn’t even deliver anything good or world beating. We should just hold our hands up to an invasion by France, Germany or Spain. At least they’d deliver proper public transport and high speed infrastructure. The UK would benefit from an ‘Anyone but Westminster’ government – which is why I’m very enthusiastic about Andy Burnham.
By Anonymous
You shouldn’t need another reset, the endless ‘resets’ ‘evaluations’ ‘revaluations’ or whatever you want to call it just inflate the cost, add bureaucracy, and delay everything.
Yes, every good project should be learning and refining as it goes, but what happened to doing a good job first time. Why does everything fly wildly off track and then need reigning in.
Also, it’s the same people doing the resets as who started the project, if it isn’t why weren’t the expert ‘resetters’ employed throughout.
By don't know their gluteals from their elbows.
Another mess.
By Anonymous
Pen pushers suggest more pen pushers
By Anonymous
Great points – agree with 11:51 you Anon!
By Agree with you
As per Burnham’s speech take power away from Whitehall (in this case the Department for Transport) and manage this in the North West where it is being built. No doubt it will get built far quicker and much cheaper than allowing pen pushers from London to faff about with 12 years of feasibility studies without holding contractors to account.
By Anonymous
Can we just get whoever is responsible for the Japanese railways to come and run ours and keep Westminster out of the process.
By Anonymous
Not needed anyway, stop wasting money
By Anonymous
Anonymous 4.09 – not needed ! – you clearly haven’t tried to get a train recently. It’s 100% needed and certainly not a waste of money.
By Anonymous
Oh would they indeed. In Spain there was a accident a few months ago where a high speed train crashed on one of these lines that was built in the 1990s.And in France two new lines have been cancelled due to the cost. On other routes across the country a number of lines have been ordered are threatened with closure and their train services replaced with buses.And as for pen pushers in London yes of course let someone in the North be responsible after all it was John Prescott who when he was Transport Secretary cancelled Regional Eurostar services in 2000 and years earlier Barbara Castle as Transport Minister and MP for Blackburn was responsible for closing many rail lines of which many were in the North.
By Anonymous
Hilarious that people are thinking Burnham is “anyone but Westminster” in terms of getting things done. The whole reason why Manchester gets what it does is because it fully cooperates, has been rewarded with funding to be stuffed full of consultants and officials to do the paperwork, which doesn’t end up in the bin because they are all part of the same system! Look at how his tone on the Green Book has shifted. Indeed, pen pushers suggest more pen pushers.
By John
We just don’t do big infrastructure projects do we? And I’m doubtful of the supposed impact of this scheme given the existing HS2 plans are looking at reducing rail capacity
By Anonymous