Transport Insights

As the question of whether the case for the £10bn Lower Thames Crossing (LTC) has been properly made continues to rumble on, the possibility arises that the project may have stalled under a new prime minister who has committed giving people “ownership and control”.

Firstly, I have had a response from the Department for Transport (DfT) to my request for an explanation as to how the outline business case (OBC) can be “in draft” despite the document having been approved nearly a year ago as the basis for a decision to commit a large chunk of public money.

The DfT seems to be sticking to its line – the basis for its refusal to disclose the document – without actually saying that the OBC is still in draft. It is full of fudges:

the next iteration of the business case

The business case remains a draft working document

was not the finalised outline business case

this project remains at Outline Business Case stage

None of this states that the OBC is in draft (or was in draft at the time Rebecca Lush of Transport Action Network asked to see it).

For good measure, the DfT says that publishing an unspecified draft document now:

could present an incomplete or misleading position, including material still subject to validation, decisions and sensitivities linked to future procurement and investment activity

So if this is the document that went to the department’s investment committee last October, a decision to increase public spending to £3.1bn was taken on the basis of “material still subject to validation”.

The DfT must know that it can’t have it both ways on this.

Meanwhile, a written parliamentary answer from transport minister Lord Hendy suggests that the government may have gone cold on the project, or the financing model, or may be struggling to put the latter together.

Hendy answered a parliamentary question from Green Party peer Baroness Jenny Jones, asking (amongst other things) when the government expects to lay the Highways (Financing) Bill, which sets up the private funding model, before Parliament. He replied:

The Highways (Financing) Bill will be brought forward when Parliamentary time allows.

Given that the Bill was in the King’s Speech in May, implying that it will be in the current parliamentary session, the inability to say when it will be brought forward looks like stalling.

Hendy also said:

The Bill will be concerned with a new financing model for our largest road projects

It is rather worrying that people in government think that there might be future road projects that are so big that they can only be financed on the never-never.

That really doesn’t seem compatible with the views of a prime minister who says:

The Government I lead will be relentless, relentless in giving people and places what they were promised 10 years ago: ownership and control.