Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the development funding to be made available for Northern Powerhouse Rail announced in the Budget is additional to that which is already being spent on that project by Transport for the North; if so, what it will be spent on and when; and whether the spending of those funds depends on decisions which will be made following the publication of the business case at the end of this year.

The £37m made available at Budget for financial year 2019-20 to develop Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) is in addition to funds already being spent by Transport for the North to develop the scheme. This will be used to take forward development work on NPR following the submission of the business case at the end of this year.