Chancellor George Osborne’s Autumn Statement contained confirmation that the cost of crossing the Humber Bridge by car will be halved to £1.50 next April. After years of calls for the bridge burden to be lifted, the Government has finally listened, wiping out £150m of the structure’s crippling historical debt.
The news is a huge shot in the arm for the Humber region and promises to finally unite both banks of the Humber in an economic region that is greater, and more powerful, than the sum of the parts.
The details are still surprisingly scant - I suspect ministers want to drip out the good news, bit by bit - so some caution is advisable. In particular, the business community will be anxious to hear what the new toll levels will be for freight journeys. The Government must be as fair to business users as to private drivers and also halve the tolls for vans and lorries.
However, the positive implications are huge. Hull City Council’s portfolio holder for Economic Regeneration & Employment, Councillor Steve Bayes, is correct in noting in the Hull Daily Mail, that slashing the tolls can make Hull truly a regional capital for the first time. The city will have an economic and social hinterland stretching south to North and North East Lincolnshire, as well as north towards Scarborough and west in the direction of Leeds and York.
The bridge was built to unite the north and south banks of the Humber, but that never happened. Instead the crippling cost of journeys became a barrier to the movement of people, products and trade.
Once the tolls become affordable, people will no longer avoid journeys back and forth. Certainly Hull should benefit from trips to the city for shopping and leisure. In truth, it’s worth paying £1.50 to cross the bridge for the sensational views alone! The £1.50 every driver saves from every crossing will be available as disposable income. Most of that will be spent within the region, benefiting shops, bars, restaurants and leisure venues.
Many more businesses will also look to invest and trade either side of the bridge. One business with operations on either side of the Humber, specialist engineering business Spencer, will save around £40,000 to reinvest in developments, such as its plans for a waste-to-energy plant in Hull. Imagine the savings for businesses that have considerable freight traffic across the bridge.
The Chancellor’s statement also included news of a second enterprise zone in the Humber. The new enterprise zone includes the threatened BAE Systems site at Brough, a vacant site at Paull, part of Queen Elizabeth Dock in Hull, and Grimsby docks.
It follows the designation as an enterprise zone of an area in total twice the size, which includes the Green Port Hull development site at Alexandra Dock and the Able UK site at Killingholme on the south bank. The first enterprise zone is the UK’s biggest.
What is happening here is effectively land assembly on a grand scale - bringing all the pieces together into a coherent and attractive whole. It forms a hugely attractive proposition for the burgeoning renewable energy industry to make the Humber its UK home.
So much has been written and said about whether Siemens will build offshore wind turbines in Hull. Well, after yesterday’s news, surely the case for the German giant investing in Hull is unbeatable. A final “yes” from Siemens could, and should, be just the start of a series of major investments on both banks of the Humber in developments that would transform the region’s economy, bringing substantial and sustainable jobs and unprecedented prosperity.
It’s a once-in-a-generation opportunity to revitalise the region’s economic fortunes and the foundations are being put in place rapidly to make it a reality.
At last, the Humber can become genuinely an economic identity, with the sub-regional capital of Hull at its heart. That’s great for investment, jobs, prosperity and regional pride.
But, just remember, don’t dare call our united region Humberside!
The details are still surprisingly scant - I suspect ministers want to drip out the good news, bit by bit - so some caution is advisable. In particular, the business community will be anxious to hear what the new toll levels will be for freight journeys. The Government must be as fair to business users as to private drivers and also halve the tolls for vans and lorries.
However, the positive implications are huge. Hull City Council’s portfolio holder for Economic Regeneration & Employment, Councillor Steve Bayes, is correct in noting in the Hull Daily Mail, that slashing the tolls can make Hull truly a regional capital for the first time. The city will have an economic and social hinterland stretching south to North and North East Lincolnshire, as well as north towards Scarborough and west in the direction of Leeds and York.
The bridge was built to unite the north and south banks of the Humber, but that never happened. Instead the crippling cost of journeys became a barrier to the movement of people, products and trade.
Once the tolls become affordable, people will no longer avoid journeys back and forth. Certainly Hull should benefit from trips to the city for shopping and leisure. In truth, it’s worth paying £1.50 to cross the bridge for the sensational views alone! The £1.50 every driver saves from every crossing will be available as disposable income. Most of that will be spent within the region, benefiting shops, bars, restaurants and leisure venues.
Many more businesses will also look to invest and trade either side of the bridge. One business with operations on either side of the Humber, specialist engineering business Spencer, will save around £40,000 to reinvest in developments, such as its plans for a waste-to-energy plant in Hull. Imagine the savings for businesses that have considerable freight traffic across the bridge.
The Chancellor’s statement also included news of a second enterprise zone in the Humber. The new enterprise zone includes the threatened BAE Systems site at Brough, a vacant site at Paull, part of Queen Elizabeth Dock in Hull, and Grimsby docks.
It follows the designation as an enterprise zone of an area in total twice the size, which includes the Green Port Hull development site at Alexandra Dock and the Able UK site at Killingholme on the south bank. The first enterprise zone is the UK’s biggest.
What is happening here is effectively land assembly on a grand scale - bringing all the pieces together into a coherent and attractive whole. It forms a hugely attractive proposition for the burgeoning renewable energy industry to make the Humber its UK home.
So much has been written and said about whether Siemens will build offshore wind turbines in Hull. Well, after yesterday’s news, surely the case for the German giant investing in Hull is unbeatable. A final “yes” from Siemens could, and should, be just the start of a series of major investments on both banks of the Humber in developments that would transform the region’s economy, bringing substantial and sustainable jobs and unprecedented prosperity.
It’s a once-in-a-generation opportunity to revitalise the region’s economic fortunes and the foundations are being put in place rapidly to make it a reality.
At last, the Humber can become genuinely an economic identity, with the sub-regional capital of Hull at its heart. That’s great for investment, jobs, prosperity and regional pride.
But, just remember, don’t dare call our united region Humberside!
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