Transport Insights

At the time or writing, the media are carrying reports that chancellor Rachel Reeves has “awarded” the Lower Thames Crossing another £590m but no announcement has been published by the Treasury, the Department for Transport or National Highways.

This is the way the government manipulates the media these days, sending out press releases to favoured outlets with quotes that no-one actually said and no detail, very much discouraging questions about how it will work in practice.

The BBC reports that: “It came as part of a £1bn package to improve transport infrastructure across England, announced on Monday.”:

Except that no £1bn package has been announced. If it has, where is the detail?

The Guardian reports that

The new funding for the crossing is part of a wider £1bn “structures fund” to be spent on repairing bridges, flyovers and tunnels across the country, as well as ensuring infrastructure is “more resilient to extreme weather events”.

That sounds like good news, but the key question as far as the Lower Thames Crossing is concerned, is what the £590m will be spend on and how much will be wasted if the government fails to pull off private financing for the £10bn scheme.

Happily, not everything went to plan for this well co-ordinated spin operation. Treasury minister Emma Reynolds was “unable to answer basic questions on £10bn Thames crossing in car crash LBC interview“