Chancellor unveils biggest ever investment in city region local transport
Source: gov.uk (2025-06-03)

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves spoke at Mellor Bus Factory in  Rochdale on 4 June 2025.

It’s fantastic to be in Rochdale, at Mellor Bus Factory;

Not just a good local business; although it is that

But also a key part of the Bee Network supply chain.

And good to see so many familiar faces here – including the leaders of some of our local councillors.

Eleven months ago today, this government was elected on a promise of change.

To deliver security for working people and renewal for our country.

To build a stronger, and more resilient Britain;

A country built on, and powered through, the contribution of people in all parts of our country.

Today, I will set out more of our plans to make that a reality.

I know how hard the last few years have been for so many people.

I have always been clear that the central challenge facing this government is to improve living standards and to renew our public services.

And that the only sustainable way to do that is to turn around Britain’s growth performance after fourteen wasted years.

To put more money in people’s pockets;

To revive our high streets;

To give our children the opportunities that they need to succeed.

Put simply: to make working people –to make our country - better off.

The central barrier to economic growth has been underinvestment.

For too long, Britain has lagged behind every other G7 economy when it comes to business investment as a share of GDP;

One of the consequences was that the last Parliament was the worst on record for living standards.

This government’s economic strategy is designed to fix that problem, underpinned by the three pillars that I set out before the election:

First, stability – so that investors, businesses and families have the confidence to plan for the future;

Second, reform – to remove the barriers that get in the way of so much potential;

And third, investment – the lifeblood of growth, and therefore of living standards.

My cabinet colleagues and I have wasted no time in pursuing this agenda:

Overhauling our planning system – the single greatest barrier that businesses told me was standing in their way…

… starting, in our first week in office, with the biggest reforms to our planning system in a generation;

Launching Britain’s first National Wealth Fund, to help mobilise more than £70billion of private sector investment into some of the industries of the future like clean energy, defence and tech;

Reforming our pensions system, to unlock billions of pounds of investment in British assets;

Forging three new major trade deals to save and create jobs – with India, the United States and the European Union – covering steel, manufacturing, and agriculture

And, alongside that, we will be shaping a modern industrial strategy and ten-year infrastructure strategy, bringing together government, business and working people, to focus on the high potential parts of our economy and our future.

We have already made significant progress:

While it is just one quarter, the most recent numbers showed Britain to be the fastest growing economy in the G7;

And real wages rose by more in less than ten months [redacted political content].

But we know that not enough people are feeling that yet;

That trust remains low, and prosperity is too narrowly shared;

I know that we must do more.

In a week’s time, I will set out a spending review targeted squarely on the renewal of Britain;

Focused on the priorities of working people;

By investing in our security, in our health, and in our economic growth.

To deliver on the promise of change to make you and your family better off.

I have long said that the only viable strategy for growth today is one that builds on strong and broad foundations.

A Britain that is better off cannot rely on a handful of places forging ahead of the rest;

And so we must reject once and for all the exhausted idea that a strong economy can be powered by just a few people, just a few industries, just a few parts of the country.

The result of such thinking has been growth created in too few places, and too few people feeling the benefits;

Wide gaps between regions, and between our cities and towns;

A sense of injustice, as our social contract frays;

And diminishing returns for growth and productivity.

For every success story, and there are many, there is potential held back:

By the long legacy of deindustrialisation [redacted political content] that consigned whole industries – and whole communities that depended upon them – to decline;

And, yes, by spending decisions made down in London.

I’ve been a Leeds MP for fifteen years, another great city.

Like so many of my colleagues, wherever they represent – and so many of our constituents – I am painfully familiar with big promises that come to nothing.

The frustration people feel, as good work and opportunity slip away;

While young people are presented with a choice to stay close to home where they want to be, or to move away to find a better job, paying better wages.

Families wrenched apart or opportunities missed out on.

No one should have to make that choice.

So, that is why I and my colleagues are determined to change things.

Because I know there is brilliant talent to be found right across our country.

I can see the potential in all our towns and our cities;

The creativity and scientific rigour in our universities;

The leading businesses pushing at the frontier…

… in sectors that will be at the core of our modern industrial strategy – in tech, energy, transport, and finance.

I see that potential everywhere that I go.

I know that a prosperous United Kingdom depends on the economic strength of all its parts.

And on the contribution of working people everywhere.

And that is why, this autumn, I will be partnering with the Business Secretary, and with the mayor of the West Midlands, Richard Parker, to host a Regional Investment Summit…

… to showcase the investment potential that all of our regions have to offer.

Over the next week, you will hear a lot of debate about my so-called “self-imposed” fiscal rules.

Now, contrary to some conventional wisdom, I didn’t come into politics because I care passionately about fiscal rules.

I came into politics because I want to make a difference to the lives of working people.

Because I believe – [redacted political content] – that every person should have the same opportunities as others to thrive and succeed…

… no matter what their parents do…

… no matter where they grow up.

And because I know that economic responsibility and social justice go hand in hand.

After 2022, no one should need to be told about the dangers of reckless borrowing for the financial security of ordinary families.

[redacted political content]

And the results would be the same:

Market instability and interest rates rising…

… with soaring rents and thousands of pounds extra on families’ mortgages…Businesses would pay more for their borrowing and

Pensions that people save hard for would be put in peril, again.

I would never take those risks. [redacted political content].

Strong and transparent fiscal rules are an indispensable safeguard for working people – and that is why my rules are non-negotiable.

So let’s be clear:

It is not me ‘imposing’ borrowing limits on government…

Those limits are the product of economic reality.

So fiscal rules do matter.

[redacted political content]

At the budget last year, I changed Britain’s fiscal rules to better serve both stability and investment, giving us the strong foundations that we need to renew our country as we promised.

The first rule is for stability:

That day-to-day government spending should be paid for by tax receipts.

That is the sound economic choice;

And it is the fair choice – because it is not right to expect future generations to pay for the services we rely on today.

[redacted political content]

Instead, we inherited a total mess:

A £22 billion black hole in day-to-day spending, and debt at its highest level since the early 1960s…

… and yet, at the same time public services at breaking point.

Last year, I made the decisions I judged right and necessary to get Britain on a sound financial footing…

… and to provide the urgent resource that our public services needed.

That is why I made decisions – some of them extremely difficult, and certainly not all of them popular – to raise taxes on business and indeed on the wealthiest in the budget;

Enabling a £190 billion real-terms increase over the Spending Review period [redacted political content]…

… spending for our schools, our hospitals, and our police the services upon which we all rely.

Even with those decisions and even with that injection of cash, not every department will get everything that they want next week;

And I have had to say no to things that I want to do, too.

But that is not because of my fiscal rules;

It is the result of [redacted political content].

It is the stability that my rules supports, and the choices we made as a government in October, that have helped facilitate four cuts to interest rates since the last election – saving £650 a year for a family taking out a new, typical two-year fixed-rate mortgage.

My second fiscal rule is what enables us to invest in Britain’s economic renewal – to keep Britain’s public sector debt on a sustainable path, while allowing government to invest in the infrastructure that will provide stronger growth in future.

The decisions that we made in October meant that, for the first time, the Treasury takes account of the benefits, and not just the costs, of investment.

Together the fiscal rules mean that, unlike our predecessors, we will not be balancing the books by cutting investment.

And that is why we can increase investment by over £113 billion more than the last government plans;

Meaning public investment will be at its highest sustained level since the 1970s.

Combined, these changes deliver over £300 billion of extra spending across five years, on our public services and on our economic future.

Britain faces a binary choice – investment, or decline.

And I choose investment.

Because I believe in an entrepreneurial, and an active state;

And I reject wholeheartedly the old-fashioned, dogmatic view that the only good thing a government can do is to get out of the way.

These choices, that I am making, are about realising that entrepreneurial, and active state.

At the spending review, I will set out, in detail, the allocation of those additional resources – to power growth and renew our public services.

The choice is already clear:

[redacted political content] we offer change.

Change that we can now deliver, because of the choices we have made.

Today, I can tell you about one part of those investments.

They are underpinned by a step change in how government approaches and evaluates the case for investing in all of our regions.

The Treasury Green Book sets the guidance for how public servants assess the value for money of government projects. It may sound dry, but it’s one of the reasons why there hasn’t been enough investment in the North and Midlands for decades.

I have heard from mayors across the country – from Andy, but also from Steve Rotheram, the mayor of Liverpool– that previous governments have wielded the Green Book against them as an excuse to deny important investment in their areas and their people.

That’s why, in January, I ordered a review of the Green Book and how it is being used, to make sure that this government gives every region a fair hearing when it comes to investment.

I will publish the full conclusions of that review next week.

However, I can tell you now, that it will mark a new approach to decision-making in government;

And an end to siloed Whitehall thinking…

… making sure that government is taking account of the reinforcing economic effects of infrastructure investments, in housing, in skills and in jobs;

To invest in all our nations and regions, not just a few.

Next week, I will set out our plans in full – for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland; in housing, in energy, in roads and in rail.

But today, I want to tell you about just one part of our plan – renewing our transport systems in England’s largest mayoral regions, including here in Greater Manchester and across the North and the Midlands.

Because connectivity is an absolutely critical factor in unlocking the potential of towns and cities outside of London;

One of the areas in which previous governments have promised most, but delivered least. And that will now change.

Let me tell you why it matters.

Modern growth rests on dynamic, connected city-regions;

Creating clusters of activity so that people can get around…

… communicate…

… share ideas…

… commute…

… find good work…

… and earn wages that flow back into strong local economies.

Stronger transport links within cities and the towns around them create opportunity by connecting labour markets…

… and making it easier for firms to buy and sell goods and services in different places, to different people.

[redacted political content] strong investment in the past in strongly integrated transport systems, including in London, helps explain London’s global success, and also its advantage over other UK cities.

We want London to succeed.

But it is the lack of that infrastructure which puts England’s other great cities – Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle – at a disadvantage compared to their European counterparts that have this infrastructure.

That helps to explain our underperformance relative to other European economies.

If we were to increase the productivity of those second cities in the UK to match the national average, our economy would be £86 billion larger.

And so, because this government believes that prosperity must come from the contribution of us all…

Because all of the sizeable evidence that public investment can crowd in many times its volume in private investments…

And because we know the potential that exists in all of our towns and cities…

… I can tell you today that we will be making the biggest ever investment by a British government in transport links within our city regions, and their surrounding towns;

£15.6 billion in transport funding settlements, to be delivered by our regional mayors;

More than doubling real-terms spending on city-region connectivity.

[redacted political content]

Thanks to the changes to our fiscal framework announced in the budget – this government now does have the money to fund it.

And that money is going to our mayors, to deliver on the priorities of their communities:

New trams, new train stations, and bus routes to link up our towns and cities;

Unlocking new homes, new jobs, new investment and leisure opportunities across our regions.

Let me take you through those city regional investments in turn.

Investment in Greater Manchester…

… to help make the Bee Network, that is built here in Rochdale, the UK’s first fully integrated, zero-emission public transport system by 2030…

… with new tram stops in Bury, North Manchester and Oldham…

… and a new Metrolink extension to Stockport…

… meaning shorter commutes into central Manchester…

… making sure that ninety percent of Greater Manchester residents will live within a five-minute walk of a bus or tram that comes at least once every half-hour…

… and opening up connections for people in Bury, in Heywood, in Rochdale and in Oldham to the tens of thousands of new jobs at the Northern Gateway.

Investment in the Liverpool city region…

… backing the mayor Steve Rotheram, to deliver three new rapid bus routes…

… linking up the city centre, John Lennon Airport, Anfield, the new Everton stadium on Bramley-Moore Dock, and new homes built on the Central Docks redevelopment;

Alongside the largest ever investment in Merseyside railway stations, to serve Halton, St Helens, and Woodchurch;

Investment in West Yorkshire, so that Tracy Brabin can fulfil her manifesto commitment to the people of West Yorkshire to deliver the Mass Transit system…

… with spades in the ground by 2028, unlocking in the process over seven thousand new homes…

Improving local transport for 700,000 people…

To link up Bradford, Kirklees, Calderdale, Wakefield, Pudsey, and Leeds…

… the largest city in western Europe without a light rail or metro system – but not for much longer.

Investment in the North East…

… to allow our mayor Kim McGuinness to extend the Tyne and Wear Metro…

… linking Washington with Newcastle and Sunderland…

… and – in line with our industrial strategy priorities – strengthening one of the largest advanced manufacturing zones in Europe, connecting Nissan and the businesses in its supply chain to a wider pool of talent.

Investment in South Yorkshire, supporting our mayor Oliver Coppard…

… so that, in addition to the reopening of Doncaster Airport…

… he can renew the existing, and now publicly controlled, Supertram network…

… with track replacements, overhead line maintenance, and rolling stock renewal

… with a full fleet of new vehicles by 2032…

… a bigger and better integrated transport network…

… linking jobs and homes in Sheffield and Rotherham.

Investment in the West of England…

… backing the mayor Helen Godwin’s plans for mass transit development across the region…

… and improved rail infrastructure, to help unlock more services between Brabazon and the city centre…

… meaning shorter journey times to Bristol Temple Meads from across the wider area.

Investment in the Tees Valley, in Middlesbrough station, unblocking local networks and increasing capacity on local lines;

Investment in the East Midlands, so that our mayor Claire Ward can forge the Trent Arc – linking Derby and Nottingham to create tens of thousands of new jobs and homes…

… connecting Infinity Park Investment Zone and the East Midlands Freeport, with sites including Ratcliffe-on-Soar, clean energy and advanced manufacturing, and East Midlands Intermodal Park, home of Toyota in the region, along the Trent Arc Corridor;

And investment in the West Midlands, backing our mayor Richard Parker’s plans for a metro extension from Birmingham city centre to the new Sports Quarter – to unlock more than £3 billion of private investment in an area with some of the lowest levels of economic activity in all of theUK…

… with the potential to create more than 8,000 jobs and catalyse the regeneration of East Birmingham and of Solihull.

For people living in some of our biggest cities and the towns around them, these measures will mean shorter commute times;

They will mean good work, and money flowing back into local economies;

They will mean businesses connecting with workers, customers, and supply chains;

They will mean the revival of high streets;

They will mean young people able to stay close to homes and pursue the opportunities that they dream of;

It will mean more growth, more parts of our country benefitting, and more people and more places across the UK feeling better off.

In short – they will mean the renewal of our cities and our towns all across the UK.

As we build train stations, tram lines and buses, that will mean orders for steel made here in Britain.

Six weeks ago, this government was presented with a choice.

To allow British Steel in Scunthorpe to close, or to intervene – in a way that British governments have been too reluctant to do for far too long.

In opposition, I promised that our economic policy would be guided by what I call “securonomics”.

A belief that an active state should, and would, take the necessary action to provide security for families and resilience for our national economy.

That we would end the days when governments turned a blind eye to where things are made and who makes them.

And I meant what I said.

And so I was not prepared to tolerate a situation in which Britain’s steel capacity was fundamentally undermined;

In which our infrastructure, our industries, our security became dependent on foreign imports.

And I was not prepared to see another working-class community lose its pride, the prosperity, the dignity that industry provides.

So we intervened, to save British steel and the jobs that went with it.

And in line with that principle, as we invest in transport for our regions, that investment will support British supply chains.

I promised that this [redacted political content] government would buy, make and sell more here in Britain.

And I meant it:

Growth, made in Britain.

Jobs, here in Britain.

And a new generation of crucial national infrastructure, built right here in Britain.

What I have set out today is just one part of our ambitious plan for the renewal of Britain.

A plan which marks a decisive break with the days when government stood back and shrugged its shoulders, as jobs, industry and aspiration were drained away from so many of our towns and cities.

Steps towards a new economic model – driven by investment in all parts of the country, not just a few.

That is how we intend to deliver on that promise of change;

To make you and your family better off.

Next week, there will be more to come.

This government promised change.

And we are keeping that promise.

Thank you.