Overview

• Labour will formally revive Northern Powerhouse Rail with a joint announcement by Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves ahead of the 28 September conference.
• The timing is intended to reinforce Labour’s credibility in northern heartlands and blunt Reform UK’s challenge in those regions.
• The east–west network is designed to link Liverpool and Hull via Manchester, Leeds, Bradford and Sheffield, aiming to ease chronic capacity bottlenecks.
• Delivery plans hinge on repurposing HS2 infrastructure north of Birmingham, notably the Crewe–Manchester section still under government ownership.
• Treasury costings have placed NPR on the infrastructure pipeline and warned that its scale will require private finance alongside public funding.