Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 15
8th Report - Northern Powerhouse Rail
Published 1 Jul 2026
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee Northern Powerhouse Rail All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
While the Department for Transport is responsible for delivering the railway, it will need others in central government to conduct supporting activities to deliver the intended wider economic benefits.30 The Department told us that “it absolutely relies on the partnership [ … ] with MHCLG”.31 When we asked who would make trade-off decisions, for example about which mayoral combined authority would get extra benefits, the Department told us that “ultimately, decisions are made in the Treasury [ … ] about the relative allocation to transport [ … ] and therefore these sorts of enhancement programmes”.32 Yet the NAO found that the Department had no formal governance in place to bring the relevant central government departments together on joint-decision making, and that as of March 2026 the Department was considering potential arrangements.33
From: Public Accounts Committee, 8th Report - Northern Powerhouse Rail (HC 97), 1 July 2026
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 14 September 2026 (deadline 1 September 2026).