Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the policy paper entitled Network North, published on 4 October 2023, how many and what proportion of the Network North projects had been allocated funding before September 2023.

Funding from Network North will go to a combination of projects including additional funding to existing work, restarting important work that had previously been paused, and to new projects and schemes that are being developed, as set out in the announcement. Many schemes included in Network North have been announced, with projects due to be delivered at various times over the next decade and beyond. Further information is available on the government website. For example:

• We have already extended the £2 national bus fare cap, which will now continue to December 2024. This has been backed by further Government investment of over £200 million reallocated from HS2 Phase 2. This means that almost £600 million will have been provided to continue capping single bus fares at £2 in England outside London until the end of 2024.
• The Midlands Rail hub will now be fully funded. We are increasing investment to £1.75 billion, connecting more than 50 stations.
• In December, we also announced £8.3 billion of additional highways maintenance funding over the period 2023 to 2034 and the next 11 years for local road resurfacing and wider maintenance.
• The £4.7bn Local Transport Fund and allocations by local authority was announced on 26 February 2024, this provides transformative levels of funding for local authorities to spend on transport priorities in their areas.