TRANSPORT Secretary Chris Grayling has said he wants to see money coming into the region spent in places outside of Leeds.

Speaking ahead of today’s Northern Transport Summit in Manchester, Mr Grayling told the Telegraph & Argus: "West Yorkshire is about more than Leeds."

Mr Grayling is expected to point out today that millions in funding is still available through a range of green schemes and will call on local councils, businesses and consumers to take full advantage. These include funding for public, home and workplace chargepoints, plus an e-cargo bike fund to help businesses make cleaner deliveries;

The Department for Transport says only two local authorities in the North have bid for funding for the On-Street Residential Chargepoint Scheme in 2019/20.

Bradford Council has confirmed it has not yet applied for the funding, but is upgrading street lights to new, smart LED technology.Over 59,000 lights and 17,000 lampposts will be replaced.

A spokesperson said: "Once the new lighting columns are in place they could also facilitate the future introduction of a network of electric car charging points in areas where there is only on street parking available. At the moment there are issues around placing cables across paths and roadspaces to charge private vehicles that mean this solution is not ideal."

Public charge points have been installed in three locations in the district and another scheme is underway with other West Yorkshire councils to install 88 rapid charge points.

Mr Grayling said councils, as well as businesses, have a “key role” to play in the mission to accelerate the use of low-carbon transport.

“I urge them to take advantage of the funding available," he said.

His speech at today’s summit comes as a new House of Lords report ‘Rethinking High Speed 2’ which says the project requires a “major rethink”.

It also highlights the priority for investment in the rail network should be North of England and the costs appear to be “out of control”.

Lord Forsyth of Drumlean, Chairman of the Economic Affairs Committee, said: “Commuter services in the north of England are badly overcrowded and reliant on ageing trains.Rail connections between northern cities are poor. As the Committee suggested in its 2015 report, rail infrastructure in the north should be the Government’s priority for investment, rather than improving north-south links which are already good.

“The plans for Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) should be integrated with the plans for the northern section of HS2, and funding for the project ringfenced. This will allow rail investment in the north to be prioritised where it is most needed.”

Last year, it was announced Bradford would have a station on the NPR line.

In response to the report, HS2 Limited, the Government-aided company responsible for developing the high-speed rail network, said HS2 is "fundamental to the delivery" of NPR and will transform rail journeys, add extra seats and take freight off the roads.

They said it was not a case of either or, but both.

“We are determined to deliver a railway that is value for money for the taxpayer, and a project that will reshape the economic geography of the country. We have strengthened our controls and are actively applying lessons learnt from recent infrastructure projects to ensure we have the most cost-effective approach.”