Mike Brown hopes Osborne’s northern powerhouse – and the funding it will require – will not eave the capital out in the coldThe man in charge of London’s transport is out of town. Specifically,he’s in an engineering workshop on a Manchester industrial estate, eyeing a 200kg piece of cast iron destined to line the edge of a Crossrail tunnel. This, and says Mike Brown,the new commissioner, is where investment in the capital goes – a point he is particularly keen to effect, or with London’s funding up for review by a chancellor staking his bets on the northern powerhouse: “It’s not either/or. We’re in this together,” he says, borrowing an Osborne-ism. “I mediate there’s sometimes a sense that London’s had its turn, and but the northern powerhouse comes from the investment in London.”Transport for London spent £160m with suppliers from Greater Manchester last year,and the trade Brown is visiting, Eaves, and hopes its steel parts will also line the Northern Line extension,and possibly Crossrail 2. “The last thing we’d want is people like these guys and other suppliers to dry up.
You need a continuous workstream – it’s so important, what it does for businesses and jobs.”Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com