The government did not get an easy ride after posting about its plan to improve roads in London... using money from the abandoned northern leg of HS2.
Yes, a project primarily meant to improve transport in the north of England, is now being used to boost the roads in the UK’s capital in the south-east.
The Department for Transport posted on X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday, confirming that they were offering “funding for each London borough to ensure millions of road users enjoy smoother and safer journeys”.
It added: “This is only possible due to £8.3 billion of extra investment from redirected HS2 funding, enough to resurface up to 5,000 miles of roads across the country.”
The attached graphic explained £235 million was going towards it – and even included a logo to signify this is a Network North project, too.
PM Rishi Sunak announced that he was axing the Birmingham to Manchester leg of the highly anticipated high speed rail (HS2) in October.
He said it would save £36 billion and the funding would be redirected to dozens of smaller transport projects – in the north of England.
At the Tory conference in Manchester, he said: “I am cancelling the rest of the HS2 project and in its place we will re-invest every single penny – £36 billion in hundreds of new transport projects in the north and the Midlands across the country.”
Sunak claimed a new “Network North” project would boost transport links and reduce travel times to towns and cities across the country.
it was deeply controversial, and even former Tory PMs like Boris Johnson and David Cameron – since appointed as Sunak’s foreign secretary – slammed the move.
So you can imagine how X users responded when the government seemingly confirmed some of that money was apparently going to London in its new graphic....