PRESS RELEASE

Labour splurges taxpayers’ cash on poor value road schemes

Transport Action Network (TAN) [1] is dismayed at today’s announcement by the UK Government to fund a raft of poor value and expensive road schemes such as the A66 Northern Trans-Pennine, A46 Newark, M60 Simister Island, A38 Derby Junctions and 28 local roads. Most of these are legacy schemes from the Conservative government which the Labour administration was expected to cancel. Tellingly, the Government hasn’t told taxpayers how much these will cost [2] and is funding some of them before they have planning permission. Most of the package of 50 transport schemes announced today are new roads while the rail schemes are mostly re-announcements.

Worryingly, following its earlier backing for the Lower Thames Crossing, the Government’s support today for a second road for national and international road haulage (the A66) is hugely damaging for rail freight [3]. In addition, its failure to announce funding for Ely and Haughley junctions, a rail freight scheme that has a far superior value compared to the many roads funded today, and which would deliver far more benefits [4], could be disastrous for the rail freight industry.

Part of the Government’s justification for approving these and other roads is that they will together deliver new homes. Yet this is an incredibly expensive way of supporting housebuilding and represents a cost of nearly £100,000 per home. If the whole 1.5 million new homes were enabled by roadbuilding in this way, the cost would be a staggering £150bn [5].

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

“Something has gone very wrong when the Labour Treasury is green-lighting low value Tory road schemes while holding back high value rail infrastructure such as at Ely. Labour committed in its manifesto to increase rail freight to reduce congestion, improve road safety and journey reliability. Yet it now appears to be actively undermining these outcomes and transport decarbonisation. This will make its job harder to produce a legally compliant Carbon Budget Delivery Plan in the Autumn. Especially when transport is the largest sector for emissions.

“Many of the roads were justified for new housing. Yet this is an incredibly expensive way of enabling new housing at a cost of nearly £100,000 per house to taxpayers. It’s economic madness and shows worrying signs of just how far Labour has strayed from its promises.”

– ENDS –

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] Green light for over 50 road and rail upgrades supporting over 39,000 new homes and 42,000 jobs, press statement on 8 July by DfT and HM Treasury

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

[4] Ely has a Benefit-to-Cost Ratio (BCR) of nearly 5, making it high value for money. Keeping Trade on Track, Autumn 2024, England’s Economic Heartland and Transport East.

In comparison, the BCR of the four major road schemes is as follows:

• A66 Northern Trans-Pennine: Initial 0.48, Adjusted 0.92
• A46 Newark: Initial 0.83, Adjusted 1.2
• M60 Simister Island: Initial 0.86, Adjusted 1.17
• A38 Derby Junctions: missing
• M54-M6 Link Road: Initial 3, Adjusted not known

Data from Cancel New Roads to Boost Growth, September 2024, Transport Action Network

[5] Cost of the road schemes (from above report):

• A66 Northern Trans-Pennine: £1.49bn (June 2022)
• A46 Newark: £686.4m (April 2024)
• M60 Simister Island: £230m (April 2024)
• A38 Derby Junctions: £229m (April 2019)
• M54-M6 Link Road: £200m (date unknown but scheme has been in limbo for some years)

Total cost of schemes (not latest costs) = £2.835bn (actual costs likely to be well over £3bn with inflation)

Note M3 J9 road scheme saw costs jump 35% between the Examination and approval

Total number of houses to be built = 39,000

Therefore cost of roads per house = £72,700 (based on old road prices)

Therefore cost of roads per house is likely to be nearer £100,000 (when prices brought up to date)

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