BEN HOUCHEN writes on this website how he believes the Tees Valley has gained a £1bn windfall from the scrapping of the northern leg of HS2. That will be a massive boost. The opportunities are exciting and endless.

However, another scheme that was listed as going to benefit from the new money was the dualling of the A1 north of Newcastle. But in 2014, Chancellor George Osborne signed off £290m for the project which was followed up by a high vis roadside photocall by Prime Minister David Cameron.

In March 2020, Chancellor Rishi Sunak signed off the project once more leading Prime Minister Boris Johnson to promise in June 2020:  "When did a Government first promise to dual the A1 to Scotland ? It was 1992. Well this Government is going to do it."

And during the Conservative leadership hustings at Darlington Hippodrome, Mr Sunak pledged to see the project through, saying it was “something as Chancellor that I, in theory, signed off on the funding for”.

So the funding has been there for nearly 10 years. To present it as new money as a result of the HS2 decision is not correct. The big question is why the Conservatives have failed to get a spade in the ground in the decade since the Exchequer first made the money available.

Another of the projects to benefit from the windfall was the Leamside line which, a document said in black and white, “closed in 1964, will also be reopened”. But within 24 hours that commitment was removed and now Transport Minister and North West Durham MP Richard Holden now says that the Government is “committed to looking into it” – pretty much the policy as it was before the windfall.

Mr Sunak promised to do politics differently but this seems to be the same old politics of smoke and mirrors. Let’s hope the Tees Valley gets its hands on every one of the £978m before they evaporate in the way that George Osborne’s £290m for the A1 seems to have gone.

SEE ALL THE ECHO OPINION ON RISHI SUNAK'S SPEECH HERE

READ MORE: BEN HOUCHEN: GOOD RIDDANCE TO HS2, THIS IS A BILLION POUND WINDFALL FOR THE TEES VALLEY

READ MORE: PLANS TO REOPEN LEAMSIDE LINE DROPPED AFTER 24 HOURS