Cumbria's transport network will benefit from £278m of reallocated HS2 funding, the prime minister has announced on Monday as part of an announcement of £4.7 billion of reallocated HS2 funding invested directly into the North and Midlands through the Local Transport Fund to improve local connections.
Westmorland and Furness Council will receive about £129m and Cumberland Council about £149m.
The funding, reallocated from the scrapped HS2 leg, will be delivered through the Local Transport Fund in an effort to improve transport connections in smaller cities, towns and rural areas with councils expected to work with MPs and communities to make sure the funding is spent "promptly and effectively" to improve transport connections. Local councils will be expected to publish their delivery plans for which projects they wish to invest in.
This investment will give local authorities funding they can invest in transformative and ambitious transport improvements from 2025 through to 2032 on projects including:
building new roads and improving junctions! installing or expanding mass transit systems, improving roads by filling in potholes and better street lighting for personal safety, improving journey times for car and bus users by tackling congestion, increasing the number of EV chargepoints and refurbishing bus and rail stations.
To ensure local authorities make the most of the unprecedented funding, 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.
Transport Secretary Mark Harper said “Today’s £4.7 billion investment is truly game-changing for the smaller cities, towns, and rural communities across the North and the Midlands and is only possible because this government has a plan to improve local transport and is willing to take tough decisions like reallocating funding from the second phase of HS2.”
“This funding boost will make a real difference to millions of people, empowering local authorities to drive economic growth, transform communities, and improve the daily transport connections that people rely on for years to come.”
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 billions of pounds directly back into our smaller cities, towns and rural areas across the North and Midlands, but we are also empowering their local leaders to invest in the transport projects that matter most to their communities - 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 the billions of pound worth of funding we’ve already invested into our roads, buses and local transport services across the country.”
Lord Patrick McLoughlin, Chair of Transport for the North, said “We welcome this funding for our local transport areas as a sign of progress towards transforming the north to a more inclusive, sustainable and better-connected region. By having greater clarity on the funding that’s available, and consolidating funding streams, it helps remove inertia and accelerates delivery on the ground.
TfN look forward to working with government and local leaders, because we know that the travelling public will get better results the more locally the decisions are made on how those services should be provided.”
Westmorland and Furness Council Cabinet Member for Highways and Assets, Councillor Peter Thornton said "We welcome the Government's commitment to supporting improvements to local roads and transport, allocating an additional £128.9 million of funding towards driving better connectivity across our villages and towns over the next seven years.”
"We have already dedicated a significant sum to our road maintenance programme in 2024/25, which will include rolling out the use of innovative 'jet-patching' machines that are capable of making up to 10 permanent pothole repairs each day, and preventative road maintenance techniques such as surface dressing and resurfacing, as we recognise the frustration that deteriorated roads cause.”
"This additional funding represents a step forward and will enable our teams to continue taking on one of our top priorities and tackle our significant maintenance backlog which will inevitably improve everyday journeys in our area. Although it is too early to say what schemes will benefit from the funding, it presents us with an opportunity to deliver infrastructure that further develops our towns, introduce new cycling, walking and wheeling routes and support bus services to encourage sustainable journeys across Westmorland and Furness.”
"As we will not receive the first allocation of monies until April 2025, in the meantime we will be identifying priority schemes based on road usage and the need of our communities before we make any formal spending commitments."
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