THE GMB general union accused George Osborne yesterday of chronic underinvestment in north-eastern England as tens of thousands of pounds are ploughed into London infrastructure.

With £14.8 billion already being spent on the Crossrail 1 rail project in the capital, the Chancellor has been reported to have pledged a further £100 million for preparatory work on Crossrail 2, with a final cost of £27.5bn.

Meanwhile, north-east England suffers a lack of investment in key roadworks and Redcar’s SSI steelworks is closing with the loss of 3,000 jobs because it needs an investment of £200m.

“Before George Osborne gives any go-ahead to spend a total of £42.3bn on east to west and north to south crossings in London he must first fund necessary infrastructure projects in this region,” said GMB northern regional organiser Bill Coates.

Major roads in the region needed upgrading along with rail routes, he said, huge brownfield sites are in need of regeneration and investment is needed for development of renewable energy projects in Tyneside.

“As London gets a completed Crossrail 1 the next major infrastructure spending has to be in the north of England. London and the south-east cannot hog all the investment.”

CASH-STRAPPED N-EAST PROJECTS

Dual carriageways for the A1 trunk road to the Borders
Dual carriageways for the A66, A69, A189 trunk roads.
North Bank of Tyne project for marine renewables and offshore wind farm technology
Regeneration of massive brownfield sites across the region
New nuclear power station at Sellafield
Extension of Tyne and Wear Metro to Durham, taking
in Washington and reopening the Leamside line
and also opening up the Blyth-­Ashington line to link Newcastle Airport with the Tyne and Wear Metro
Improving rail links to other northern English and Scottish cities
Investment in Redcar’s SSI steel