Transport for the North (TfN) says it will focus on delivering a revised Strategic Transport Plan by March next year and an updated Northern Powerhouse Independent Economic Review.
The sub-national body, which brings together the north’s local transport authorities and business leaders, has published its 2022/23 business plan in which it says it will also work with partners to make the case for funding to deliver electric vehicle charging and publish a Freight and Logistics Strategy, among other aims. TfN says that since its launch in 2018 it has become seen as a "regional centre of excellence for strategic transport planning".
In 2019 the body published its Strategic Transport Plan which set out investment it said could support up to £100bn growth in GVA and create 850,000 jobs by 2050. It is now underway with an updated plan having acknowledged the pandemic has brought about the need to re-think where investment is best placed.
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The fresh timetable published by TfN shows a Freight and Logistics Strategy will come next month, while the refreshed Northern Powerhouse Independent Economic Review will land in December this year. It also promised to ensure the Sheffield to Leeds study identified in the Integrated Rail Plan is progressed at pace and that it would get board agreement to publish a Connected Mobility Strategy for the north.
Martin Tugwell, chief executive of Transport for the North, said: "The publication of our 2022/23 Business Plan sets out the ambition of TfN as we move forward. It maps out our focus not just for the year ahead, but beyond that. Since its inception in 2018, TfN has become a regional centre for excellence for strategic transport planning. As we move forward as a smaller, leaner organisation, we will focus on our core role and responsibilities, developing our ability to support our partners as they turn strategy into delivery on the ground.
"We will continue to act as one voice for the North of England to ensure that the region gets the investment in its transport network that the people who live and work here deserve."
In a pre-face to the business plan, TfN chair and former Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin said there was a lot of work to do, but the body remained confident it would "make huge progress this year."
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