Transport Insights

Roads minister Simon Lightwood, who seems to be making a career of hiding the truth from the public, also seems to see answers to parliamentary questions as an opportunity to spin spurious and unfounded claims while saying as little as possible in relation to the question asked.

With controversy swirling over the decision to hand over the existing Dartford Crossing and around £120m a year in revenue to the operator of the Lower Thames Crossing (LTC), Tory MP Greg Smith asked:

whether the Department will treat the transfer of Dartford Crossing toll revenues to a private Lower Thames Crossing operator as a loss of income to the Department.

It’s worth breaking Lightwood’s non answer into chunks.

He starts off saying that under the Government’s preferred financing option, the Regulated Asset Base model, a new private sector entity would be responsible for operating and maintaining both the Dartford Crossing and the LTC,

ensuring a consistent and reliable service.

When politicians and PR types use the word “ensuring”, they are spinning. It’s wishful thinking dressed up as certainty.

Lightwood continues:

This entity will be overseen by a regulator to ensure it performs and protects users.

Same again. Expecting a regulator to “ensure” anything is not just wishful thinking but totally at odds with the performance of regulators in this country.

Then Lightwood claims that charges from the Dartford Crossing and the new Lower Thames Crossing received by the entity

will be used towards keeping the crossings well‑maintained and journeys running smoothly for users.

This implies that the revenues are inadequate to maintain the Dartford crossing, leaving the entity to chip in from its own funds, when the reality is that the £120m that the government is set to forego is net revenue *after* the roughly £135m cost of running it.

Then Lightwood really departs from reality:

This approach brings in private capital to fund the majority of construction, delivering better value for taxpayers and reducing the overall pressure on public budgets.

You can claim that giving revenue from the LTC to the new entity somehow brings private capital towards the construction costs, but if you add the billions of foregone revenue from Dartford to the £3bn the taxpayer is already set to chip in, the majority of the cost is being paid by the state.

And finally, remember that Lightwood was asked whether the loss of income to the DfT will be treated as a loss of income, which it is. But he couldn’t even answer that:

The Department has built the effect of this into its financial forecasts.

What has it built into its financial forecasts? The reduced pressure on budgets? The reality is that giving up this huge revenue stream will increase pressure on the DfT’s budget and not reduce it, as claimed.

Like the refusal to admit that the LTC is a smart motorway, claims that it will be mainly funded by private capital are all smoke and mirrors.