No money for projects outside of London

Soldato
Joined
12 Sep 2003
Posts
10,713
Location
Newcastle, UK
Is it just me or do we seem to still have a North / South divide when it comes to infrastructure projects?

The dualing of the A1 here up North, scraped. High speed rail, scraped. And Newcastle in particular, struggling to get final 6 million funding sign off for Tyne Bridge restoration. An iconic landmark.

Turn to London. We've got new talk about a third runway at Heathrow. Potentially costing billions. Millennium bridge refurbishment, signed off. But remember we apparently have a 22 billion black hole.

Why is money available for London but not the North. Just a few years ago money for the North was taken to fix pot holes in London but Labour led the backlash at the time. It seems like whoever governs, the North is ignored.

What are your thoughts on this? Might not be the North, but perhaps in your area, you have read about London trumping a project. Be interesting to hear.

It really needs to stop. Wealth should be spread evenly.
 
I don't think it is just North more a London (and maybe a small number of other high density urban areas) vs the rest - down where I am in the South West the last few years money seems to have vanished not helped by the councils spanking what there is up the wall far too often on vanity projects or hopeless "rejuvenation" schemes, etc.
I agree. Just going off what I know from being in Newcastle. I think if you are not London, your missing out in general. It is frustrating to see money being moved away from vital projects. Especially connectivity projects. Road and rail in my example.
 
Going to echo what rroff said it seems to be London then the rest of us. We are all in this mess together and no money seems to be getting spent of public services/transport/spaces around my area in the last 10 years of not longer
Sad to hear. What area are you in / near? Normally labour is something Northern folk go for but I'm struggling to see any investment.
 
I think generally the wealth just isn't there any more and the North is probably one of the first to suffer.
There was hope for British Volt recently promising thousands of jobs as well in Blyth up North. Classed as levelling up. Went into administration sadly. That would have been something great for UK and battery production.
 
In fact it is starting to feel like living in a 3rd world country - services vanishing or increasingly less reliable, emergency services struggling, roads increasingly like the surface of the moon, improvement projects cancelled, etc. etc.
My parents often used to say this to me and I would laugh. But now, I actually start to believe them.
 
Probably a little controversial but I travel to London fairly often for work and, I get it. All the action is down there in terms of the economy, it feels like travelling to a different country in all honesty. If they can get people into and out of London more quickly, it'll boost the economy way quicker than anything they'd do up here.
If it were to the benefit of the country I might be like, go for it, spend the money, but it sadly never seems to leave London.
 
The north has been completely abandoned. What doesn't help is too many vanity projects squandering what little funding we do receive.
Agree. The main flyover being shut between Gateshead and Newcastle because it has fell into disrepair says it all. And what do they want to replace it with. A boulevard!
 
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