Good evening. After weeks of speculation we understand tonight that the Prime Minister is going to scrap the plans to build the h52 high speed rail line between birmingham and manchester. He is expected to make the announcement in manchester at the conservative Party Conference tomorrow. Our Political Editor chris mason is there for us now. For the last couple of days, the Government Machine has felt quite low key, even underpowered, from the Prime Minister down, when it has come to the announcements they have had to make but tonight, that looks like it is about to change, not least with the confirmation is widely expected over the last couple of days, of the scrapping of the h52 rail line between the West Midlands and manchester. My understanding is the mayor of the West Midlands, a conservative, we included his views on our reporting of this last night, saw the Prime Minister this afternoon and tonight is distraught. Expect rishi sunak when he sets out his announcement to say that in
£4.8 billion in the 2021 budget for borisjohnson s flagship project. some of that levelling up fund will be ploughed into infrastructure and the regeneration of town centres and high streets, there will be new local transport projects and money to maintain the uk s culture and heritage. but among 4,000 people who spoke to the think tank more in common, the majority seem to think london the majority seem to think london has had it too good. it s soaking up all the talent, a disproportionate level of investment, and it is time the money was shared out more evenly. let s go to the north of england. joing me now is the chief executive of the east lancashire chamber of commerce, miranda barker. nice to see you again, miranda. i don t think we have spoken since brexit, so it s good to have you back on the programme. what does levelling up mean to you? mean to you ? there mean to you? there is a short term answer and a long one. the short term answer is what we hope to see on the levelling u