£15bn road investment details unveiled by DfT

The Department for Transport (DfT) has unveiled the full details of a planned £15 billion of investment in England’s road network, which was trailled by the prime minister David Cameron last month.

As it published a detailed road investment strategy (full contents of which can be found at the government website), DfT said it would invest in more than 100 new road schemes over the remainder of this parliament and the next, and deliver 1,300 new lane miles on motorways and trunk roads, thereby tackling congestion and “longstanding problem areas”.

The scope of the new projects spans the breadth of England. The sum includes £1.5bn of investment in so-called ‘smart motorways’, which will involve the addition of an extra lane onto key routes, thereby improving connectivity between London, Birmingham, Manchester and Yorkshire.

In the south west of England, a £2bn commitment will dual the entire A303 and A358, including the creation of a tunnel at Stonehenge in Wiltshire – thereby offering dual carriageway access to within 15 miles of Land’s End in Cornwall.

Meanwhile, the government says it is “driving forward the northern powerhouse” by completing the smart motorway along the whole of the M62 from Manchester to Leeds, as well as improving trans-Pennine capacity from Manchester to Sheffield.

In the north east, £290 million will complete the dualling of the A1 all the way to Ellingham, just short of the Scottish border, in a move which DfT said would “make the Great North Road truly great again” – while links will also be improved to the Port of Liverpool in the north west, as part of a wider plan to improve access to major international gateways.

The south coast will see £350m allocated to improve the A27 to tackle severe congestion at Arundel, Worthing and Lewes – while in London, one third of the junctions on the M25 will be improved to improve commuter waiting times.

In the east, £300m is being deployed to upgrade the east-west connection to Norfolk, by dualling parts of the A47 and improving connections to the A1 and A11 roads.

And in the midlands, the M42 to the east of Birmingham will be improved, thereby increasing connectivity to the airport and NEC Birmingham – home to trade exhibitions such as the Commercial Vehicle Show and Coach & Bus Live.

Further measures outlined include the transformation of the Highways Agency into a government-owned company, which DfT will save the taxpayer £2.6bn over ten years; £100m to improve cycling provision at 200 key locations; a £300m environmental fund to mitigate carbon emissions and noise pollution, including the creation of new charge points for low emission vehicles every 20 miles across the network; and £100m to “unlock future growth and housing developments”.

Overall the new road schemes will create more than 6,000 jobs across England, government figures suggest.

“Today I am setting out the biggest, boldest and most far-reaching roads programme for decades,” said the transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin.

“It will dramatically improve our road network and unlock Britain’s economic potential. Roads are key to our nation’s prosperity. For too long they have suffered from under-investment.

“This government has a long term plan to secure the country’s future and this £15 billion roads programme is demonstration of that. Better roads allow us to travel freely, creating jobs and opportunities, benefiting hard-working families across the country.

“Spending during the next parliament on England’s roads network will be boosted further by maintenance funding worth more than £10 billion across the local and national road network.”

Chief secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander added: “For decades our roads have suffered from under-investment… Investment on this scale is only possible because we have taken the difficult decisions needed to control our public finances and stuck to our recovery plan which is now delivering strong growth and record numbers of jobs.”

The Freight Transport Association (FTA) was quick to voice its support for the scheme, which it said was: “good news for the freight and logistics sector.”

FTA head of road network management policy Malcolm Bingham said: “FTA believes that this investment announcement has significant benefits for the freight industry in setting improvements to journey reliability. The freight and logistics industry relies upon reliable road infrastructure to ensure that products are move efficiently and at reasonable cost.”

He added: “Our challenge now is to make sure that these announced schemes are taken forward and the work that will be inevitable during construction is done with the minimum of disruption.”

Meanwhile, the Road Haulage Association (RHA) also welcomed the funding, but added that: “without the comparatively minimal sum of £150m to train desperately needed truck drivers it will not be the UK’s hauliers that benefit from the improvements, but those based in continental Europe and conducting business in the UK.”

RHA chief executive Richard Burnett said: “For those operating in the road transport and logistics sector, time is money. Ours is an industry that is time critical and today’s announcement will come as good news to UK hauliers. The plans to tackle congestion and fix some of the most notorious and longstanding problem areas on the network are particularly welcome.

“However, road improvements are just part of the jigsaw. The fact remains that this industry is now facing a critical driver shortage. While road improvements and road building are good news, they will have little effect on the industry that, quite literally moves the economy forward if there are not enough HGV drivers to take advantage of the improvements.

“We need government to invest in training for drivers. This announcement makes it clear that the money is there – it makes sense that funding for training is made available.

“The Road Haulage Association is asking the chancellor for an industry investment of less than £150 million. This would provide training for the 45,000 drivers the industry so desperately needs. This is a drop in the ocean compared to the announced £15 billion spend.

He added: “As well as increased capacity and a transformation of the busiest sections of the network, we welcome the government move to transform the Highways Agency into a government-owned company.

“This will mean funding can be allocated on a longer term basis, saving the taxpayer at least £2.6 billion over the next ten years.

“The planned improvements, repairs and expansion of Britain’s infrastructure will provide much needed employment opportunities across the entire road system. But it is essential that these schemes are completed on time, on budget and with as little disruption to the already clogged road network.”

Simon Elliott, managing director at MAN Truck & Bus UK, also welcomed the news, stating: “The UK’s priority must be to invest in improved roads and inter-city links. We are pleased that Mr Osborne recognises this and we look forward to seeing how his proposals are rolled out.”

The coalition plans attracted criticisms from other quarters, however, with the shadow transport secretary, Labour’s Michael Dugher, calling the announcement “a desperate pre-election con.”

“This is just yet another re-announcement on promised road improvements,” he said. “The government has ‘announced’ plans for road investment at least three times since 2013.  And no additional money has been announced…

“The Tory-led Government’s record on road investment has been one of cutting investment, then promising to restore it after 2015, cancelling road schemes such as the A14 and then reinstating them, and constantly failing to meet deadlines for the completion of improvements.”

He continued: “And local roads have been completely ignored under this Government.  Maintenance investment in local roads has declined by 11 per cent in real terms from 2010 to 2014.  And local authority budgets, which provide funding for roads maintenance, have been slashed by a third.  They are pretending to give with one hand, having taken away so much with the other.

“We know David Cameron’s record on infrastructure is one of all talk and no delivery. Infrastructure output has fallen significantly since May 2010 and less than a third of projects in the government’s pipeline are actually classed as ‘in construction’.

“If Ministers were as good at upgrading roads as they are at making announcements about upgrading roads, life would be considerably easier for Britain’s hard-pressed motorists who have been consistently let down by this government.”

Meanwhile, the Green Party said the government plans’ effect would be to “lock in” an “unhealthy, carbon-intensive transport policy”, and said more needed to be done to reduce petrol and diesel use.

Caroline Lucas, Green MP for Brighton Pavilion, said: “The prime minister’s obsession with major new road schemes is economically questionable as well as environmentally reckless.

“The coalition’s claim to be the ‘greenest government ever’ is already in tatters. Recycling discredited road building policies from the Thatcher government of the 1980s will only make matters worse.

She continued: “Road building simply does not reduce congestion. For decades, even the government’s own studies have been showing this. Road building encourages more traffic, worsens air pollution, and causes severe loss and harm to our precious countryside. As new roads simply clog up, the economic arguments evaporate – especially when compared to the alternatives.”