George Osborne to announce Leeds-Manchester HS3 rail plans

George Osborne will announce a plan to boost the Northern economy by building England’s third high-speed rail link between Manchester and Leeds as the Conservative campaign trail begins.

The project would be based on the existing Manchester-to-Leeds rail line but journey times would be speeded up by building new tunnels and infrastructure.

According the the Independent, the Chancellor will admit: “The cities of the North are individually strong, but collectively not strong enough. The whole is less than the sum of its parts.

“So the powerhouse of London dominates more and more. And that’s not healthy for our economy. It’s not good for our country.”

“We need a northern powerhouse too. Not one city, but a collection of northern cities – sufficiently close to each other that combined they can take on the world. able to provide jobs and opportunities and security to the many, many people who live here, and for whom this is all about.”

Other cities such as Newcastle, Hull and Liverpool are not included in the plan which could invite criticism to the plan. Council leaders in the North East have warned that the North extends far beyond Manchester.

It was reported that Osborne imagines a “northern hub” with 7.8 million people stretching from Merseyside through Greater Manchester to West and South Yorkshire, to address the imbalance between London and the North.

Although no timescale or budget for HS3 has been fixed, Mr Osborne’s move is a sign that Coalition ministers are worried that the recovery is unbalanced and too concentrated on the South East, which could potentially hurt any chance they have in the elections.