The North of England would have received an additional £140bn in transport funding if it had received the same amount of money that London received from 2010-2022, a think tank has said.

According to the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), the money would have been enough “to build seven Elizabeth Lines” and demonstrates the disparity in spending by Conservative-led governments over the period.

Its independent analysis of Treasury figures found that while Londoners received around £1,183 per person in taxpayer funds to build out the capital’s transport infrastructure, areas in the North only received £355–£603 per person during the same period.

In response to the figures, IPPR is calling for a ‘Great Northern Rail’ plan to improve the rail network across the North, following the cash for city regions announced last week.

The announcement from Chancellor Rachel Reeves saw city regions in the North, Midlands and the South West receive a £15.6bn funding boost for buses, trams and local train infrastructure. The mayors of Greater Manchester and the Liverpool City Region also proposed a new railway line linking their cities to cut the commute time to just 20 minutes.

While London did receive a greater proportion of funding per person, it’s also the UK’s biggest tourist hotspot: more than half of all visitors to the UK, including domestic and international travellers, visit the city. In 2023, it attracted 20.3 million overnight visits, while approximately 1.1 million people commute to London daily from other counties.

Former treasury minister Lord Jim O’Neill said: “Good governance requires the guts to take a long-term approach, not just quick fixes. So the Chancellor is right in her focus on the UK’s long-standing supply-side weaknesses – namely our woeful productivity and weak private and public investment.

“Backing major infrastructure is the right call, and this Spending Review is the right time for the Chancellor to place a big bet on northern growth and begin to close this investment chasm. But it’s going to take more than commitments alone – she’ll need to set out a transparent framework for delivery.”

Marcus Johns, senior research fellow at IPPR North, commented: “Today’s figures are concrete proof that promises made to the North over the last decade were hollow. It was a decade of deceit. 

“We are 124 years on from the end of Queen Victoria’s reign – yet the North is still running on infrastructure built during her reign – while our transport chasm widens. 

“This isn’t London bashing – Londoners absolutely deserve investment. But £1,182 per person for London and £486 for northerners? The numbers don’t lie – this isn’t right. This government have begun to restore fairness with their big bet on transport cash for city leaders. They should continue on this journey to close this investment gap in the upcoming Spending Review and decades ahead.”