Northern Powerhouse Rail

Lord Harper Excerpts

Monday 19th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness in Waiting/Government Whip (Baroness Blake of Leeds) (Lab)]

May I remind noble Lords that this is an opportunity to ask questions of the Minister? Can we keep comments succinct? There is plenty of time for everyone to get in if we all keep our questions sharp, so that he can answer them.

[Lord Harper (Con)]

My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister for recognising the success of the trans-Pennine route upgrade—which was, of course, started by the last Conservative Government, when a lot of significant work was done. The Minister also had responsibility for that in a previous role.

I have two specific questions. Is the £45 billion pound cost envelope that the Minister mentioned calculated in 2026 pounds, or is it going to be uprated for inflation? That is a very important question, given the length of time HS2 has taken and the significance of that. Secondly, is the delivery authority for the Northern Powerhouse Rail project going to be GBR?

[Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill (Lab)]

The £45 billion is in 2026 pounds. I think the noble Lord will recognise that, for example, we have been accounting for HS2 in 2019 prices for a number of years, which is clearly a ridiculous proposition. I expect GBR to take responsibility for much of this, except that the Government may well decide to deliver building a brand new route between Liverpool and Manchester separately, as with East West Rail. We have to regard the whole thing as part of the national railway network and not as something dreamt up, delivered from Mars and imposed on the railway, with the consequent loss of connectivity and the ability to change trains at stations for all the journeys people want to make.