Northern Powerhouse Rail plans announced to grow productivity, with faster rail commutes across Yorkshire, better journeys to the North East and route upgrades.
- government launches new growth plan for the North to unlock the region’s economic potential and boost living standards – growing the productivity of 5 largest cities to the national average would add up to £40 billion a year to the UK economy
- faster frequent and reliable trains across Yorkshire, better journeys to the North East, and progressing Leamside Line proposals in plans to vastly improve travel and open up job opportunities
- Northern Powerhouse Rail will see upgrades to lines between Leeds, York, Bradford and Sheffield first in the 2030s, with better connections to Manchester in later phases
People across Yorkshire and the North East will benefit from faster commutes, greater job opportunities and increased investment as part of major Northern Powerhouse Rail plans launched recently (14 January 2026).
The new major government growth plans will boost economic potential and living standards across the North, with more reliable and more frequent trains across major cities in the regions. The Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) plans unveiled today will drastically improve how people travel for work, education and leisure – growing the productivity of 5 largest cities to the national average would add up to £40 billion a year to UK economy.
The first phase will prioritise upgrades and electrification between Leeds-Sheffield, Leeds-York and Leeds-Bradford to transform commutes, set to be delivered in the 2030s. In the North East, work on the business case for the Leamside Line will be taken forward, as part of ensuring NPR services reach Newcastle.
With £1.1 billion to progress planning and development work as soon as possible, plans include improvements for Leeds, Sheffield and York stations – supporting significant regeneration plans to unlock tens of thousands of homes and jobs. The plan also includes pressing forward with work on Bradford Station, putting a young, dynamic city of 500,000 people at the heart of the northern network.
Over £11 million of local transport funding has now been agreed for South Yorkshire to develop a new Rotherham Gateway station, which spells an end to slow journeys to Leeds and support the ambitious regeneration plans for the town.
The North East will also benefit from regular services onwards to Newcastle via Darlington and Durham. This follows recent investment of £4 billion in the East Coast Mainline which has seen 60,000 extra seats weekly through the new timetable.
Sheffield or Bradford to Manchester can take up to 54 minutes, despite both cities being around 30 miles away – meanwhile Reading to London Paddington takes 22 minutes covering 35 miles. There also are only 2 fast trains an hour between Leeds and Manchester, which is a hugely popular route and suffers from severe overcrowding.
It can take up to 1 hour 23 minutes to get to Manchester airport from Leeds or Sheffield, even though they are around 40 miles away.
The second phase of NPR will build a new route between Liverpool and Manchester, running via Manchester Airport and Warrington, following in the 2030s. The third phase will focus on improved connections between Manchester and Sheffield, Manchester and Leeds, and explore options for Manchester to Bradford.
This landmark upgrade to rail travel is one of the central building blocks of a plan for the North – to be published in the spring. This will include plans for a northern growth corridor from Liverpool to York via West and South Yorkshire and bespoke plans for the North-East to make the most of opportunities in clean energy, AI, innovation and city centre regeneration.
Not only will plans improve travel connections, the redevelopment of stations and surrounding neighbourhoods will bring in new homes, jobs and local businesses. Regeneration of Leeds Station will include exciting plans for the South Bank, while development around the new Bradford Station and York Central will add new housing in the bustling city centres. The Advanced Manufacturing Innovation District spans 2,000 acres along the Don Valley corridor, linking Rotherham and Sheffield, with the potential to enable thousands of new homes and jobs.
The NPR plans build on the £11 billion Transpennine route upgrade, between York and Manchester, via Leeds and Huddersfield, which is already delivering more efficient journeys for people across the north.
A funding cap of £45 billion will be set for the programme, including £1.1 billion over the Spending Review period allocated from existing budgets first. Learning lessons from HS2, the government will work closely with local partners to ensure planning processes are carried out efficiently, and approvals are streamlined to reduce delays and prevent projects from going over budget.
The city regions of the North have huge untapped economic potential. Leeds and West Yorkshire are emerging as the ‘Northern square mile’ for financial services, while Sheffield and South Yorkshire are at the cutting edge on defence and advanced manufacturing, York’s thriving and dynamic cultural and visitor economy, and Newcastle’s growing research and innovation sector.
The government is working with mayors, other local leaders, and businesses to announce a wider plan this spring for taking advantage of these strengths, firing up productivity and prosperity across the North.
This plan brings in existing work to unlock immediate benefits for residents, including work to help fill local skills gaps across the country, and will build on this with further policies to improve connectivity, revitalise cities and towns, support people with the skills to access new opportunities, and support businesses to innovate and grow.
Train stations are emerging as prime property hotspots, driven by UK government initiatives that grant "default yes" planning permission for developments within a 15-minute walk of stations. This strategy aims to unlock up to 1.2 million new homes, particularly on brownfield land, leveraging high-density transit-oriented development to meet housing needs.
Key Drivers for Station-Area Development:
- Policy Boost: The UK government has introduced a "default yes" for housing projects near well-connected train or tram stations, even impacting parts of the Green Belt, to speed up development.
- High Potential: Over 100 intermodal hub stations in the UK are immediately suitable for new investment models.
- Housing Volume: An estimated 1.2 million new homes could be built within a 10-minute walk of rural stations alone.
- Economic Impact: Regeneration projects, such as around King's Cross and St Pancras, have demonstrated a three-fold increase in employment.
- Property Value: Properties within 500m of a railway station in major cities like London, Manchester, and Glasgow command a 5-9% higher value compared to those further away.
- Developer Focus: Initiatives like Platform4 from Network Rail are specifically targeting brownfield railway land to deliver 40,000 new homes and over 10 million sq ft of commercial space.
This shift reflects a broader, global push towards sustainable, transit-oriented development, reducing car dependency and maximizing land use efficiency near transport hubs.
The government recently dropped a draft policy that basically says "yes please" to building homes around railway stations.
Even on the green belt.
They want 40 homes per hectare around normal stations and 50 around well-connected ones.
Here's why this matters.
If your site is within a 15-minute walk of a train station, the government is practically rolling out a red carpet (in theory).
The policy even says councils should approve these developments by default unless there's a really good reason not to.
Some experts are calling it a "default yes" which is almost unheard of in planning.
But before you go buying every field within walking distance of a platform, there's a catch.
Actually, there are several catches.
Building at those densities means apartments not houses.
It means dealing with the Building Safety Regulator if you go over seven storeys.
It means figuring out if people actually want to live in flats in semi-rural locations.
And parking becomes a nightmare when everyone still wants two cars but you're supposed to be building dense.
The policy sounds amazing on paper but the real question is whether your specific site near your specific station in your specific council area will actually get approved.
Because the policy still says councils need to consider "individual circumstances" and "local character" which are the exact phrases planning officers use when they want to say no