Will the Treasury be the blocker to the East of England’s builders?

3 min read04 June

The Treasury has shown it can build, not block, when it comes to the North. Now it must do the same for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.

Over the past year, we have heard a lot from the Prime Minister about supporting the builders over the blockers. It’s a principle I also share.

As the newly elected Mayor for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, I ran on a manifesto pledge that promised to get our region moving. Why? Because in my region, it’s not a lack of innovation or entrepreneurial spirit that's holding residents back from a wealthier, happier, and healthier life. Opportunities are available, but abhorrent transport links are preventing them from actually making the most of them. I, too, champion the builders who will better connect our region and drive growth and employment opportunities.

But what happens when the Treasury risks being your biggest blocker?

This is a problem residents in the East of England have long wrestled with.

I’ll use our local rail scheme, Ely Junction, as an example that illustrates this problem. Ely Junction marks the point where key rail routes from Scotland, Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham merge into one Victorian track while trying to access the UK’s busiest port of Felixstowe. This century-old track is a bottleneck, not only stopping businesses across the UK from trading with the world cheaply and reliably, but also stopping residents across the East of England from accessing more passenger services or faster journey times. The current situation is indefensible. It’s quicker to get to London from either Cambridge or Peterborough than between each other, despite them being only 37 miles apart.

What is even more galling is that the original business case for Ely Junction was worked up back in 2002. Despite offering remarkably high value for public money, returning £4.89 for every £1 spent, and boasting advantages like removing 98,000 lorries from our roads each year, opening 2,900 freight services annually, and 277,000 extra rail passenger services, very little has progressed in those 23 years.

During the same time period, Elon Musk founded Space X, which has subsequently completed 481 missions into space. Yet Britain is seemingly unable to replace century-old infrastructure, which is choking trade. You’d be forgiven for thinking that rail has been engineered into rocket science.

In March of this year, the government announced £415m to upgrade Victorian-era track between Manchester, Huddersfield, Leeds and York. A worthy scheme which will cut journey times between Manchester and Leeds and Manchester and York, and will return £2.50 for every £1 spent.

I have written to the Treasury to reaffirm my support for the Ely Junction scheme, offering to work with the department to leverage even more benefits for residents than those estimated 23 years ago. The Treasury has proved that it will not block growth in the North. My only question to the Treasury ahead of the Comprehensive Spending Review in June is: will you block growth in the East?

Paul Bristow is the Conservative Mayor of Peterborough and Cambridgeshire.