Today the Government has announced that an extra £243 million of reallocated HS2 funding will be invested in Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin to improve public transport, reduce congestion and upgrade local bus and train stations.

It is the first transport budget of its kind that is specifically targeted at towns and rural areas and which empowers local people and local leaders to invest in the local transport projects which matter most to their communities.

As part of the Government’s latest funding decision, Shropshire Council will receive an extra £136,443,000 and Telford & Wrekin Council will receive an extra £107,018,000.

Local councils will receive funding from April 2025, giving them time to develop their funding proposals properly. This funding will be on average at least nine times more than councils currently receive through the current mechanism for funding local transport improvements.

The announcement comes as part of the Government’s plan to reallocate the £36 billion saved by scrapping HS2 Phase 2 into local transport improvements – benefiting more people, in more places, more quickly than the HS2 project would have done.

This latest funding increase is only for the Midlands and the North because most HS2 savings are from those regions. Every penny of the £9.6 billion committed to the Midlands leg of HS2 will be reinvested in the Midlands.

It is surprising that Labour won’t even say if they support the Government’s plan to reallocate HS2 savings into local transport improvements. I am clear that this is the best and quickest way to deliver better local transport for my constituents.