Rachel Reeves is expected to announce plans for the high-speed rail scheme across the north of England ahead of the Budget amid growing concerns over delays to the project.
The Chancellor had been expected to unveil funding to push on with Northern Powerhouse Rail in the weeks after the spending review in June and possibly at the party’s autumn conference, but the plans have been repeatedly delayed.
It comes amid concerns within Whitehall over the costs of the scheme, which will provide a new rail link between Liverpool and Manchester, via Manchester Airport, and through to Leeds and Hull.
A report published earlier this month by the think tank Policy Exchange and backed by Reform UK warned the new £17bn line between Liverpool and Manchester would take longer than the existing rail line.
Reform has said it would scrap the scheme, and the report proposed replacing NPR with a version of Crossrail in London, now known as the Elizabeth Line.
It has prompted ministers and officials to re-examine the proposals for a new high speed rail line in a bid to avoid repeating the mistakes of HS2, which is expected to cost more than £70bn and is facing years of overruns.
Officials are now planning for NPR to be given the green light after the Labour Party conference but before the Budget, which will take place on 26 November.
The BBC has reported that officials want to give the scheme an “extended tyre kicking”.
The idea for NPR was first put forward by former Tory chancellor George Osborne in 2014, but the scheme has been beset by setbacks and delays since.
Political and business leaders in the north are desperate to see NPR delivered as it is seen as potentially crucial to keeping hopes alive of seeing a new rail line delivered between Birmingham and Manchester.
square REFORM UK ExclusiveInside Reform's plans to scrap HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail
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Insiders believe that if the £17bn route between Liverpool and Manchester is delivered, then phases 2a and 2b of HS2 could be built at a far lower cost further down the line.
The new NPR line will travel via Manchester Airport, and business leaders believe phase 2b, which links Crewe to the airport would be far more attractive to deliver.
This would then open up the possibility of building phase 2a from Crewe down to the West Midlands and Handsacre, where HS2 phase 1 currently ends.
In June, The i Paper revealed that ministers had instructed HS2 Ltd, the delivery arm of the beleaguered rail link, to retain key sections of HS2 north of Birmingham, in a move that would allow the line to be built at a later date.
In a letter to HS2 Ltd, Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander instructed the company to retain two “spurs” of HS2 at Handsacre for future development.
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