Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 26
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)
We highlighted this gap to the Department. It told us it was looking at a range of measures to boost capacity without new infrastructure, but did not provide further detail on the measures. It also explained there was significant uncertainty when projecting rail demand so far into the future and set out why it believed the phase 2 timeline was necessary. Reasons for this included the time required to get the design right and for processes such as the passage of the hybrid Bill and consenting, and ensuring a “reasonably even profile of work” for the supply chain.57
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).