PRESS RELEASE

Funding for £1.5bn A66 will undermine growth

(and only save up to 12 minutes)

Transport Action Network (TAN) [1] is dismayed that today the government has announced funding for the A66 Northern Trans-Pennine road scheme in Cumbria and North Yorkshire. The mega-road project was last costed at £1.5bn in 2022, but the absence of any funding figures in the announcement suggests costs have risen further [2].

It is being funded to support national and international trade, yet these are exactly the sort of long-distance routes that are ideal for transferring to rail. This would be better for reducing congestion and safety, and better for the environment.

According to National Highways’ own figures the £1.5bn scheme is a loss-making investment [3]. The safety case for the scheme has been exaggerated too. TAN has previously shown that investing the same money in low-cost easy to implement road safety measures could save 10,000 lives and serious injuries across the country (including the A66) over the next 20 years, compared to 31 just on the A66 alone [4].

It will also cause significant environmental harm, emitting nearly 3million tonnes of carbon, the loss of 18,000 trees, and damaging important habitats and landscapes [5].

Chris Todd, TAN’s founder and director, said:

“This represents another setback for the government’s growth agenda. The only thing this will grow is more traffic and more HGVs on our roads, making them less safe. The government is also being rather coy about its true cost.

“This money, if invested in low cost safety measures across England would save 10,000 lives and serious injuries over the next 20 years. Three hundred times as many as on the A66 alone.

“The government needs to stop making empty promises and actually support making our roads safer by moving freight onto rail. This is now the second major road scheme it has approved on major trade routes crying out for rail freight alternatives [6].

“The A66 will also undermine the government’s own decarbonisation agenda, fuelling flooding and extreme weather events. It will see 18,000 trees destroyed and after the A14 disaster, where nearly a million trees planted as compensation have failed, we cannot have any faith nature will not be made to pay for this folly.”

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Notes for editors

[1] TAN helps communities press for better (more sustainable) transport. We support more investment in bus and rail services and active travel. To enable this and better roads maintenance (fewer potholes) we continue to oppose the previous government’s damaging roads programme. We also support better integration between transport and planning.

[2] The £1.49 billion cost is in National Highways’ A66 Northern Trans-Pennine Funding Statement (paragraph 2.1.1), submitted to the planning examination in June 2022. Note this figure is over 3 years old. When the government approved the funding for the M3, Junction 9 scheme, the costs jumped 35% in just two years. A similar cost increase for the A66 would see a final bill nearer £2bn.

[3] The Benefit-Cost Ratio (BCR) for the A66 project is in National Highways’ A66 Combined Modelling and Appraisal Report (Table 6-21), submitted to the planning examination in June 2022. This shows a BCR of just 0.48 and even after dubious wider benefits are included it only has a BCR of 0.92, i.e. it makes a loss for the country.

[4] TAN is calling on National Highways to scrap spending on grandiose major road enhancements such as the A66 that would only treat 17 miles of road for £1.5bn. If the same £1.5bn was invested across England along the lines of the RSF safety programme, 3,500 miles of roads could be treated instead. This would save 10,000 lives and serious injuries over the next 20 years, having 300 times the impact of the A66.

Figures derived pro rata from Table 2, page 6 of Road Safety Foundation’s (RSF) report ‘Driving Change: Investing in Safer Roads’

A66 Northern Trans-Pennine Project: 3.7 Transport Assessment, National Highways, June 2022, Table 9.9 Cobalt Assessment Results: Casualties Saved. Note figures in this table are for a 60 year appraisal period so need dividing by three for a 20 year period, which gives 31 deaths and serious injuries saved. This is three hundred times less effective than investing in low cost safety measures as outlined by the RSF.

[5] The scheme’s harm is set out here, but includes 2.7m tonnes of carbon dioxide, loss of 18,000 trees and impacts national landscapes and internationally important wildlife sites.

[6] The government’s approval of the Lower Thames Crossing and now the A66 Northern Trans-Pennine for long distance HGV haulage, routes that are ideal for moving HGVs onto rail, shows it has little intention of sticking to its promise to increase rail freight.