Liverpool City Region LEP Chair Robert Hough will next week meet with LEP Chairs from across the North to ensure that the private sector voice is heard in the allocation of national infrastructure investment.
The call comes as a report commissioned by the Liverpool City Region LEP in conjunction with Merseytravel has estimated that a direct High Speed 2 line to Liverpool could generate an economic impact of £8.3bn as well as supporting 14,000 jobs in the City Region economy.
Initial findings from the study were presented last week to the LEP Board alongside the Long Term Rail Strategy for the City Region. The study suggests that the increase in Gross Value Added that might be generated annually from having High Speed connection would be more than £500m per annum supporting 14,000 jobs and an annual increase in business rates equivalent to £29m per year with land values increasing by £179m.
The report also estimates that significantly more economic impact might be achieved if High Speed 2 is able to provide an increase in freight paths from the area, building on the work to develop the City Region as a ‘Freight and Logistics Hub’.
Commenting on the initial outcomes from the research, Robert Hough, Chair of the Liverpool City Region LEP said: “We are absolutely committed to our efforts to ensure that Liverpool City Centre, and the City Region as a whole, benefits fully from the development and investment in High Speed 2. Our Growth Plan submitted to Government stressed this importance and the economic case in this report can only help our case.
“Investing in infrastructure, such as HS2 is the only way that we can achieve a rebalancing of our economy and it essential that we work collaboratively, across the North, to make sure that message is heard.”
The report on HS2, which will be published over the coming weeks, forms part of a co-ordinated suite of studies which each make the case for increased investment in infrastructure within the City Region. This builds on the LEP’s Growth Plan for the City Region which included an ask of £111m for infrastructure projects as well as the Long Term Rail Strategy itself which will be presented to the Combined Authority on June 13, 2014.
Research in 2013 by think-tank the Institute for Public Policy Studies* showed that over 86% of national investment in transport infrastructure was to be invested in London and the South East – the equivalent to £2,600 per head for every London resident. Investment per head in the North West was shown to be around £100, while other northern regions fared equally poorly with investment in Yorkshire and Humber of £160 and investment in the North East of just £5.
Robert added: “The current disparity in per capita spend is unjustifiable if our aim is to achieve balanced growth throughout the whole of the UK and not simply in the South East. I am meeting a number of Northern LEP Chairs next week to begin to make that case more strongly as it is in our collective interest to work together and ensure the North gets a better deal.”