£149m in HS2 cash to be handed to North Northamptonshire to upgrade roads, rail and pay for other major transport schemes

North Northamptonshire is to receive £149m for transport upgrades from money diverted from the Government’s scrapped high-speed rail link.

When the Midlands to Manchester leg of HS2 was finally discarded at the end of last year, the Government promised to mitigate its impact by reinvesting the saved money saved into public transport links across the entire country.

It said that ten road schemes across the East Midlands would be ‘fully funded’ including the Isham bypass and the A43 between upgrade between Overstone and Hannington – although the majority of that scheme is in the West Northamptonshire council area.

This morning (Monday, February 26) it was announced that £149,208,000 of that cash will be coming to North Northamptonshire. The final decision on how that money is spent will be up to North Northamptonshire Council, but it’s expected that some of it could be used to build the long-awaited A509 Isham bypass.

Neighbouring West Northamptonshire will get £162m and it’s thought that may help dual the A43.

Locals who have long-since stopped waiting for the two schemes to be funded will be sceptical about whether they will finally now go ahead. The money will not be available until 2025, and with general election between now and then, any new Government could choose the spend the money in a different way.

The Local Transport Fund, as the Government has named the scheme, could funnel more than £1bn to the East Midlands area.

The Government say the cash could be used to fund better public transport, reduce congestion and upgrade local bus and train stations

Making the announcement to cabinet this morning, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Transport Secretary Mark Harper are expected to confirm the first fully devolved transport budget of its kind for smaller cities, towns and rural areas.

The funding will span seven years and dwarfs the £9.7m given to North Northamptonshire Council by the Government as its annual highways fund for the forthcoming year.

In total, the Government expects to reallocate £36 billion from HS2.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said: “We have a clear plan to level up our country with greater transport links that people need and deliver the right long term change for a brighter future.

“Through reallocating HS2 funding, we’re not only investing over £1 billion directly back into our smaller cities, towns and rural areas across the East Midlands, but we are also empowering their local leaders to invest in the transport projects that matters most to them – this is levelling up in action.

“The Local Transport Fund will deliver a new era of transport connectivity. This unprecedented investment will benefit more people, in more places, more quickly than HS2 ever would have done, and comes alongside billions of pounds of funding we’ve also invested into our roads, buses and local transport services across the country.”

Councils will work with local MPs as well as their communities to make sure the money is spent promptly and effectively. Local councils will be expected to publish their delivery plans for which projects in which they wish to invest.

The Department for Transport will publish advice for local councils and transport authorities to help them develop ambitious plans to improve local transport infrastructure in their areas.

The Local Transport Fund is directed to the North and Midlands because the majority of HS2 savings are from those regions. The new fund is also specifically for communities in the North and Midlands outside City Regions - who already receive City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements (CRSTS) – allowing them to deliver similar transport infrastructure upgrades in their local communities.

The full breakdown of the allocations for the East Midlands is:

Lincolnshire – £262,339,000

Rutland – £49,341,000

Leicester – £159,559,000

Leicestershire – £238,154,000

North Northamptonshire – £149,208,000

West Northamptonshire – £162,831,000

East Midlands total – £1,021,432,000