Labour mayor makes £1bn funding plea to resolve Leeds tram 'scandal'

A mayor has said it is a "scandal" that does not have a tram, as she renewed calls for £1 billion of government funding to go to a proposed link in next month's Spending Review. Tracy Brabin, mayor of West Yorkshire, told the Daily Express the planned tram, which would connect neighbouring cities Leeds and Bradford, could grow the regional economy by £11 billion.

She said European cities of similar sizes already had established tram systems and that now was "our turn" to build the same. Ms Brabin has championed the long-awaited tram link since she took office in 2021, promising to begin construction by 2028 and revealing she hoped for the project to be completed within six years. The West Yorkshire Mass Transit Programme is slated to cost £2.5 billion in total and aims to develop a high-capacity network combining cycling, walking and rail in the region, which is Europe's largest metropolitan area without an urban transit system.

If built, the tram link would span two routes, travelling from Leeds west to Bradford and south to Kirklees. Notably, it would also pass through the Leeds West and Pudsey constituency represented by chancellor Rachel Reeves.

As a result, a final decision on the programme's funding will go to her deputy, chief secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones.

Reeves will deliver her first Spending Review, a budget-setting process for each Government department, on June 11. According to the Government website, the fiscal event is an opportunity for the chancellor and her deputy to review funding requests and "make sure they offer good value for money for the taxpayer".

Ms Brabin said the tram link would deliver a boost to the local economy, but added she had received "no guarantees" ahead of the Spending Review.

She told the Daily Express: "[The tram link] is a pivotal part of our growth plan. We have a plan to grow our economy to the tune of £11bn and we can't do that without the tram.

"It's a scandal that Leeds, in comparison to other cities of the same size in Europe, doesn't have a tram. It's our turn."

She said investment in regional transport infrastructure was vital to the growth agenda being pursued by the government, adding the Leeds-Bradford link would have "national significance".

"You cannot grow the economy of the UK without investing in infrastructure projects," she said. "This is a regional project with national significance."

"The chancellor and the prime minister know that to get growth across the UK, you have to invest in the North, you have to invest in transport and these big infrastructure projects are absolute gamechangers."

West Yorkshire has seen a number of failed transport projects in recent decades, including the infamous "Supertram" proposed in the 1990s, cancelled amid spiralling costs despite backing from the New Labour government and a planned start of 2004.

More recently, the Trolleybus scheme had been proposed as a solution for the region's mass transit woes, but was rejected in 2016 when the Government said it was "not in the public interest".