Just over \u00a31bn has been allocated to develop a detailed plan linking cities from Liverpool to Newcastle, with the Treasury imposing a \u00a345bn spending cap in an attempt to avoid the cost overruns that plagued HS2.<\/p>\n
The government claims NPR will deliver faster, more frequent services and act as the backbone of a wider growth programme, improving links between Liverpool, Manchester, Bradford, Leeds, Sheffield and York.<\/p>\n
However, construction is not expected to begin until the 2030s and will not be completed until at least 2045.<\/p>\n
NPR is not a rehash of HS2. HS2 was designed as a north\u2013south high-speed line. Northern Powerhouse Rail is an east\u2013west programme intended to strengthen connectivity between northern towns and cities, where services are frequently slow, crowded and limited by capacity.<\/p>\n
Labour said it \u201cset out its intention\u201d to build a new Birmingham\u2013Manchester line after Northern Powerhouse Rail is completed, while insisting this would \u201cnot be a reinstatement of HS2\u201d. The move would, in effect, replace the cancelled HS2 leg to Manchester, which was scrapped by the Conservative government in 2023.<\/p>\n
NPR is a three-stage programme:<\/p>\n
Stage one builds on the current TransPennine Route Upgrade and includes a new station in Bradford, making West Yorkshire one of the earliest beneficiaries.<\/p>\n
Stage two would deliver a new line connecting Liverpool and Manchester, routed via Manchester Airport and Warrington. The route follows part of the previously planned HS2 corridor, allowing the possibility of a future link towards Birmingham.<\/p>\n
It would mean Manchester Airport, the UK\u2019s largest outside London, would gain a new station on the line.<\/p>\n
Stage three would bring further improvements across the Pennines, strengthening connections between Manchester, Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield and York.<\/p>\n
The Treasury\u2019s \u00a345bn cap means parts of the programme may still depend on local funding contributions if costs rise beyond it.<\/p>\n
Government officials said funding options were being developed and could include raising money through business rates, tourist taxes, or borrowing against future revenues, which is similar to the way London helped fund Crossrail.<\/p>\n
Funding is also likely to be a key aspect of negotiations with regional mayors, particularly where high-cost elements of the project remain undecided.<\/p>\n
An example of this is Manchester Piccadilly. Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham has pressed for an underground station to allow through-running services and reduce disruption in the city centre. The cost difference between underground and surface options is thought to run into several billion pounds.<\/p>\n
Even though Northern Powerhouse Rail has been championed by successive governments, it has been repeatedly delayed and scaled back. After HS2\u2019s northern leg was cancelled in 2023, rail insiders said NPR remained alive \u201cin accounting terms only\u201d but had not progressed to a workable route plan.<\/p>\n
Labour has now committed to developing a full programme, with ministers saying the decision is central to boosting growth and restoring confidence in long-term infrastructure delivery.<\/p>\n
Although the timeframes are long, major transport schemes can influence property markets years before any work begins, as investors and developers price in the value boost provided by future improvements in connectivity. The benefits are mostly concentrated around stations and key hubs, with measurable premiums for homes within walking distance of rail stations.<\/p>\n
The most immediate beneficiaries of this are therefore likely to be around the proposed Liverpool\u2013Manchester line via Warrington and Manchester Airport, because it links two of the North\u2019s largest city economies and a major employment hub outside London.<\/p>\n
Bradford\u2019s new station could be another early investment hot spot, with city-centre station projects often used to anchor wider regeneration plans, which is likely to attract the interest of developers.<\/p>\n
However, it will all still depend on the Government finally delivering on its promises.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Labour has revived Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) with a pledge of up to \u00a345bn, setting out a three-stage rail package aimed at improving connections between the North\u2019s biggest cities and \u201creversing years of chronic underinvestment\u201d. Just over \u00a31bn has been allocated to develop a detailed plan linking cities from Liverpool to Newcastle, with the Treasury… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4233,"featured_media":6106483,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[59,2,61,179,4,40,111,349,765,42],"tags":[783],"class_list":["post-6107034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending-news","category-buy-to-let-landlords","category-construction","category-expert-advice","category-investment","category-leeds","category-liverpool","category-manchester","category-property-investment","category-regeneration","tag-northern-powerhouse-rail"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6107034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4233"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6107034"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6107034\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6107035,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6107034\/revisions\/6107035"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6106483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6107034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6107034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6107034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}