Hull excluded from 'Northern Powerhouse'

Hull North MP Diana Johnson has responded to today's Autumn Statement from the Chancellor.

Hull North MP Diana Johnson said: "Hull is clearly outside this Government's 'Golden Triangle' and barely gets a mention in this Autumn Statement and all the talk about a 'Northern Powerhouse'.

"This Statement had nothing to support Hull's work as the national City of Culture 2017, but finds £78m for a new Theatre and exhibition complex in Manchester.

"Flood protection for Hull will still be underfunded for years to come, but they can find £1.3bn for a road tunnel under Stonehenge and £175m for a Thames Garden Bridge.

"The Coalition continues to delay Hull getting our privately financed rail electrification scheme done for 2017, and further massive cuts were flagged up for our local authority and police services. There was no real help to avoid a crisis in Hull's NHS.

"Worse still, while the richest get huge tax cuts low paid workers and the poorest will continue paying for the Coalition's failure to keep their promise to eliminating the deficit by 2015."

Speaking in the House of Commons this afternoon, Diana Johnson MP asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer: "Why does the Chancellor consistently forget to mention Hull when he is talking about the 'Northern Powerhouse', particularly when people in Hull seem to think that the 'Northern Powerhouse' is a new electrical store that is opening and not the joined-up plan for the whole of the north that it is? He can redeem himself, however, by announcing today the privately financed initiative to electrify the line to Hull, for which we are all waiting."