Transport Insights

Funding for local road enhancements and repairing thousands of “run-down bridges, decaying flyovers and worn-out tunnels” over the next four years will be equivalent to the cost of one major project on the strategic road network.

The Department for Transport (DFT) has clarified its botched press release in June about cash for England’s road network, explaining that while the £1bn in the headline ­will not be used for the Lower Thames Crossing (LTC), it will have to cover both “local highway enhancement projects” and a new Structures Fund.

The department will still not say how much of the £1bn is for enhancements to local roads under the Major Road Network (MRN) and Large Local Majors (LLM) funding streams and how much is for repairing dodgy structures, but it’s unlikely to do much on either front.

The original announcement referred to “major investments to improve vital road structures”, with approximately 3,000 bridges currently unable to support the heaviest vehicles, with the package also including £590m to take forward the LTC.

It made no reference to enhancement schemes on local roads, but was very much focused on making “vital road structures…both more resilient to extreme weather events and to the demands of modern transport”.

In a further announcement in July, the DfT claimed in July to have “green-lit” 28 local road enhancement schemes, referring to:

£1 billion to enhance the local road network and create a new structures fund

As I wrote last week, roads minister Simon Lightwood told shadow transport secretary Richard Holden in a parliamentary written answer that £24bn capital funding for roads over the next four years:

includes £1 billion for key local highway enhancement projects and a new Structures Fund for repairing run-down bridges, decaying flyovers and worn-out tunnels.

The DfT has now confirmed that the £1bn covers the Structures Fund and enhancement schemes on local roads, with an additional £590m specifically for developing the LTC.

It’s not clear why Lightwood thought the £1bn was something to boast about as it is the same as the estimated cost of just one of National Highways enhancement schemes – the A428 Black Cat to Caxton Gibbet.

The DfT has said further detail on the Structures Fund and on the MRN programme will be set out “in due course”. It may be that it hasn’t yet worked it out. It previously told me that it would not disclose the MRN/LLM budget on the grounds that:

Ministers are actively considering matters that directly relate to this information

As I pointed out at the time, the 28 “green-lit” schemes comprised just two newly approved schemes, 10 schemes previously approved and in construction, and 16 schemes that might be funded in future.

Beyond this, a tranche of schemes were said to be “under consideration”.

Highways magazine recently reported Lightwood as saying:

It is no secret that this government inherited an extremely difficult economic situation, so we have been forced to place the remaining planned schemes under review. By assessing whether these projects are useful, affordable and deliverable, we can then decide how best to spend taxpayers’ hard-earned pounds.

Under the DfT’s double-speak, “green-lit” seems to be code for under consideration, while those schemes said to be “under consideration” or “under review” have actually been shelved.

But it remains unclear how many of the 16 schemes genuinely under consideration can be funded within the four-year period covered by the £1bn – while still leaving a worthwhile Structures Fund.