You can tell it’s an election year. Rishi Sunak has promised to ‘fire up the engine of the north’.

Here we go again.

You’ll recall the Tories talked about creating a Northern Powerhouse about 10 years ago. As we know, it never happened.

A key driver in boosting our economy should have been Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) to improve connectivity between northern cities. Unfortunately, NPR can’t now be delivered in full after Sunak scrapped the northern leg of HS2 because the two went together.

I know HS2 was unpopular with some of my constituents, for understandable reasons. But I think we can all agree public transport in places like Northwich is abysmal.

So, there was a dim light at the end of a very long tunnel when Sunak claimed £1.5 billion of £36 billion reallocated HS2 funding would instead be spent on transport projects in the north.

In our area, Cheshire West and Chester Council (CWaC) was to receive £168 million. Hurrah! – you might have thought – but now the reality of what that means is starting to emerge.

Because funding from the seven-year programme, between 2024/25 and 2030/31, won’t be divided into seven annualised chunks of £24 million. Rather, indications suggest the cash will be heavily backloaded towards the end of the project with no big money likely until 2030 at the earliest!

All we are likely to receive in the early years are a few crumbs to work up business cases for transport schemes that are needed now. And when you learn Cheshire West has a list of 614 projects waiting to be funded, you can see what a drop in the ocean this money really is.

A biggie for Northwich is the need for a brand new Winnington Bridge given the bottleneck at the aging swing bridge. Sadly, CWaC’s excellent £45 million bid for the new bridge was rejected by Government.

The bridge would have more than paid for itself by unlocking regeneration of the nearby Winnington Works site to enable a 1,550-homes scheme, with all the positives for people and business.

Sunak is desperate for favourable headlines. But I would caution you to watch out for his smoke and mirrors tricks. Above all, ask yourself how seriously you should take any pledges from a government likely to be out of office in a few months’ time.