Transport Insights

Still on the subject of Essex road widening, a bizarre exchange has taken place between a Tory MP and the roads minister about the decision by the last government to delay the start of works on the A12 widening project, with the minister telling the Tory that he cannot see “advice” given to the Tories.

With the roads minister being Simon Lightwood, of course there is a degree of evasiveness, obstructiveness and chicanery, with the upshot being that the Tories want to show that they didn’t shelve the scheme – which Labour formally cancelled – and Lightwood wanting to suggest that they did.

It seems to go back to a question last year from local MP Priti Patel, asking for

an assessment of the changes in costs for the A12 widening scheme following the decision taken by the Secretary of State to pause that scheme in July 2024

This relates to the decision by the then transport secretary, Louise Haigh, soon after Labour came to power, to put a number of large schemes into a review. The scheme was cancelled a year later.

With Patel obviously wanting to blame the pause for the cost increase, Lightwood pointed out that the Tories had deferred the scheme in March 2024. The latest cost estimate he gave was up to £1.27bn in September 2022.

A few questions later, Tory Greg Smith asked:

whether a written ministerial direction, submission, or other formal decision document exists in relation to the March 2024 decision to defer the start of construction on the A12 widening scheme

Lightwood decided to answer the question selectively:

Ministers took the decision in March 2024 to defer the start of construction on the A12 widening scheme following advice from officials. There is a long-standing convention not to release advice received by previous administrations. There is no written ministerial direction in relation to the decision.

Note that he did not cover the possibility of a “submission” and that appears to have been what happened.

According to National Highways’ Performance Monitoring Statement for Year end 2023-24, the scheme had a start of works date of Q4 2023-24 (i.e. March 2024) but was “subject to Change Control”.

This is the formal process by which National Highways seeks ministerial permission to put back or cancel existing commitments. Given that the scheme had not started in March 2024, it was inevitable that the start of works commitment would be missed. The delay appears to have resulted from the development consent order only being granted in January 2024 and an almost immediate legal challenge.

Ministers may have taken advice from officials about any submission from National Highways, and any such advice would have fallen under the convention cited by Lightwood, but the submission did not.

It doesn’t look as if a new start of works date was ever agreed. In July 2024 there was a General Election and National Highways’ Delivery Plan Update for 2024-25 shows the scheme as “subject to spending review”. It fell foul of the spending review in 2025.

All the Tories appear to have done was agree to a request to reschedule the scheme, shortly before leaving office. For most of the time between then and its cancellation, the pause was Labour’s decision.