Mayors welcome £6.9bn local transport boost – but warned of HS2 ‘sting in the tail’
England’s regional mayors have welcomed a £6.9bn spending boost for local transport – but they are also being warned of a “massive sting in the tail” to come from Chancellor Rishi Sunak.
At next week’s budget and spending review, Mr Sunak is expected to announce £5.7bn will be put into transport settlements for city regions, as well as £1.2bn of new funding for bus services.
The Treasury is promising the cash will boost productivity through train and station upgrades and the expansion of tram networks in cities outside of London.
The funding appears to be a victory for Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, who has been campaigning for government money to help create a London-style transport service for his city region.
However, a former government infrastructure tsar has accused Mr Sunak of putting “the good news before the bad news” as they predicted the chancellor would also scrap a major part of the HS2 rail project and scale down other big infrastructure schemes.
As part of the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements, £1.07bn will be allocated for projects in Greater Manchester, £830m for West Yorkshire, £570m for South Yorkshire, £1.05bn for the West Midlands, £310m for Tees Valley, £540m for the West of England, and £710m for the Liverpool city region.
Mr Burnham welcomed an “important first step” towards a London-style transport system for Greater Manchester and said the government was “listening to the case” that his city region was making.
But the Labour politician added that “infrastructure investment alone will not make levelling up feel real to the people of Greater Manchester – that will only happen when the frequency and coverage of bus services are increased and fares are lowered to London levels”.
Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham has been campaigning for a London-style transport network
Andy Street, the Conservative mayor of the West Midlands, hailed the “largest single transport sum we have ever received” and promised “some truly game-changing schemes” such as more Metro lines and train stations, new bus routes and electric vehicle charging points.
His fellow Tory regional politician, Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen, said the cash was “another example” of the government’s commitment to being “serious about levelling up”.
He promised that “every part of our transport network in the region will be touched, with our critical practical schemes such as major station renovation and road improvements sitting alongside funding for more innovative projects like low-emission vehicles and smart traffic lights”.
The Treasury said the local settlements will enable projects such as new carriages for Greater Manchester’s Metrolink, an expansion of tram networks in South Yorkshire and the West Midlands, and battery packs for Merseyrail trains to extend its network.
And Mr Sunak’s department is also promising the £1.2bn pot for bus services will improve infrastructure, fares and services outside of London through the delivery of integrated fares and ticketing, as well as extra services and new bus priority measures to speed up journeys.
Those places benefiting from the money will be selected in the coming months, according to the Treasury.
“Great cities need great transport and that is why we’re investing billions to improve connections in our city regions as we level up opportunities across the country,” Mr Sunak said.
“There is no reason why somebody working in the North and Midlands should have to wait several times longer for their bus or train to arrive in the morning compared to a commuter in the capital.
“This transport revolution will help redress that imbalance as we modernise our local transport networks so they are fit for our great cities and those people who live and work in them.”
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However, former Labour transport secretary Lord Adonis – who went on to lead the UK National Infrastructure Commission under David Cameron and Theresa May – forecast that Mr Sunak’s announcement of local transport funding would come before the scrapping of the eastern leg of HS2 between Birmingham and Leeds.
He told Sky News: “The truth is the government is announcing a pretty good deal for local transport because they think all politics is local and having bus schemes, local train and local tram schemes is going to be popular.
“And I welcome that because we do need much better local transport and we particularly need it in the Midlands and the North so it’s more like London.
“However, what they’re not announcing now is the massive sting in the tail which is the cancellation of the eastern leg of HS2 and a big scaling down of the project to link up the northern cities from Liverpool and Manchester, through to Bradford and Leeds and then Newcastle in the north of England.”
Lord Adonis added the “big, strategic, backbone” transport infrastructure schemes were “just as important” as local schemes “if we’re going to level up this country properly”.
Labour’s shadow transport secretary Jim McMahon said: “If ministers were serious about ensuring towns and cities of the North are better connected, they’d be delivering to HS2 to Leeds and Northern Powerhouse Rail.
“Both these projects are critical to addressing the climate crisis and transforming the economies of the North and Midlands.
“If ministers go back on their word, communities will feel rightly betrayed.”
Earlier this month, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps signalled the eastern leg of HS2 could be scrapped in favour of other transport spending as he spoke of how the government should “not blindly follow some plan invented 15 to 20 years ago which no longer benefits people”.
Acting US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York (EDNY) John Durham has departed as President Donald Trump’s pick takes control of the office.
In a May 5 notice, the US Attorney’s Office for EDNY said Joseph Nocella will serve as interim US Attorney for the region for 120 days or until a Senate-confirmed nominee assumes the role. Nocella’s appointment came as jury selection began in the criminal trial of Braden John Karony, the former CEO of crypto firm SafeMoon.
It’s unclear how the advancement of Nocella, appointed by US President Donald Trump this month, could affect prosecutors’ case against Karony, who faces charges of securities fraud conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, and money laundering conspiracy. Nocella said he intended to help prosecute “narcotics-traffickers, gang members, terrorists, human-traffickers and other criminals.”
The former SafeMoon CEO asked the court in February to consider pushing back the start of the trial based on “significant changes” Trump had proposed affecting US securities laws, potentially impacting his criminal case.
Related: What do crypto users want to happen to Alex Mashinsky?
Though not as well known for criminal cases involving high-profile figures in the crypto industry, the Eastern District of New York has been responsible for overseeing cases against individuals tied to digital assets, including a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) complaint against Hex founder Richard Heart and fraudsters.
Its neighboring district, the Southern District of New York, will oversee the sentencing of former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky on May 8. Jay Clayton, a Wall Street insider and the former chair of the SEC, became the interim US Attorney for the district in April.
Criminal trial to start on May 6
SafeMoon’s Karony, Kyle Nagy, and Thomas Smith were charged in November 2023 for “diverted and misappropriated millions of dollars’ worth” of the platform’s SFM token between 2021 and 2022. Karony has pleaded not guilty to all charges and has been free on a $3 million bond since February 2024.
In a May 5 filing, Karony agreed to have jury selection for his trial proceed under US Magistrate Judge James Cho. District Judge Eric Komitee is expected to oversee the trial starting on May 6.
Magazine: Crypto wanted to overthrow banks, now it’s becoming them in stablecoin fight
US President Donald Trump’s crypto businesses are drawing increased scrutiny on Capitol Hill and beginning to influence the progress of US digital asset legislation. As Republican lawmakers in the US House of Representatives unveiled their draft of a digital asset market structure bill on May 5, Democrats prepared for a united response to Donald Trump’s deepening connections with the industry.
Speaking to Cointelegraph on May 5, a Democratic staffer with knowledge of the matter said that House Financial Services Committee Ranking Member Maxine Waters planned to lead some members of her party out of a Republican-led hearing discussing digital assets. The May 6 hearing, entitled “American Innovation and the Future of Digital Assets” and led by Committee Chair French Hill, could address draft legislation proposed by Republican lawmakers to establish a crypto market regulatory structure.
In a May 5 statement, Rep. Hill and three top Republicans unveiled the draft bill, which could clarify the treatment of digital assets by the US’s financial regulators: the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Hill and others echoed some of Trump’s talking points on crypto — e.g, making the US a “crypto capital of the world” — suggesting deference to the president’s previously announced policies.
The draft bill included a provision requiring the SEC and CFTC to issue joint rules defining digital commodities. According to the text, transactions involving digital commodities “shall be deemed not to be an offer or sale of an investment contract” as long as the purchaser did not have “an ownership interest or other interest in the revenues, profits, or assets.”
According to the Democratic staffer, rules required all members of the House Financial Services Committee to agree to move forward with the digital asset hearing, suggesting that Waters intended to block the Republican-controlled event and conduct a shadow hearing to explore Trump’s and his family’s ties to the crypto industry. At least nine Democrats have reportedly considered a similar move to oppose a proposed stablecoin bill in the Senate.
Calls for impeachment, criticism from both sides
Some members of Congress have already called for Trump’s impeachment after he offered the opportunity for some of his top memecoin holders to tour the White House and attend a private dinner. In addition to the memecoin, the president’s family has backed the firm World Liberty Financial, which recently launched its own stablecoin, and an Abu Dhabi-based investment firm used the USD1 stablecoin to settle a $2 billion investment in Binance.
Related: US Senator calls for Trump impeachment, cites memecoin dinner
Waters, according to the staffer, requested that Hill and Republicans amend any proposed legislation to explicitly prevent potential conflicts of interest in which Trump could personally enrich himself through crypto ventures. Cointelegraph reached out to Hill’s office but did not receive a response at the time of publication. The Arkansas lawmaker reportedly said in March that the Trump family’s involvement in the crypto industry makes related legislation “more complicated.”
Republican lawmakers in the United States currently have control of the House, Senate, and presidency. At least two senators supportive of Trump have criticized his memecoin dinner, hinting that the president was selling access to his office. It’s unclear at the time of publication who among the memecoin holders could attend the May 22 dinner in person.
Magazine: Trump’s crypto ventures raise conflict of interest, insider trading questions
This is a developing story, and further information will be added as it becomes available.
Asset manager VanEck has asked US regulators for permission to list an exchange-traded fund (ETF) holding BNB, the native token of Binance’s BNB Chain, regulatory filings show.
The ETF is designed to accumulate spot BNB (BNB) tokens and “may, from time to time, stake a portion of the [fund’s] assets through one or more trusted staking providers,” according to the ETF’s S-1 prospectus. The filing marks the first time an asset manager has filed for a BNB ETF in the United States.
The BNB token has a market capitalization of roughly $84 billion, according to data from CoinMarketCap. As of May 5, BNB stakers earn a yield of approximately 2.5%, according to data from Stakingrewards.com.
Binance’s BNB Chain is among the most popular smart contract networks, with a total value locked (TVL) of nearly $6 billion, according to data from DefiLlama.
Related: Binance co-founder CZ proposes Bitcoin, BNB for Kyrgyzstan reserves
Bitcoin’s “spillover” effect?
The filing comes days after Binance co-founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao reportedly said he expects the popularity of Bitcoin (BTC) ETFs to eventually “spill over” into altcoins.
“This cycle so far has been the ETFs. And it’s almost all Bitcoin. Ether hasn’t had as much success but Bitcoin success will spill over to the others eventually,” CZ reportedly said during the Token2049 conference in Dubai.
Spot Bitcoin ETFs attracted net inflows of more than $40 billion since launching in January of 2024, according to data from Farside Investors.
VanEck’s filing is the newest in a flurry of filings seeking to list ETFs holding altcoins.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has acknowledged dozens of cryptocurrency ETF proposals since US President Donald Trump took office on Jan. 20.
They include plans for ETFs holding native layer-1 tokens such as Solana (SOL) as well as memecoins such as Dogecoin (DOGE).
VanEck has filed to list other cryptocurrency ETFs over the past few months, including funds holding Solana and Avalanche (AVAX).
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