Tag: mrn

• Clearing the decks?

  By way of further tidying up of the things that the DfT is very poor at making clear, the department has now published the definitive list of which local road upgrade schemes it scrapped and which were withdrawn by their local authority.

  To recap, 42 schemes went into a review last year, one of which was green-lit in December, with a further 16 said in March to be continuing, leaving 25 in a zombie state until the DfT confirmed earlier this month that they had been put out of their misery.

  Now the DfT has issued an October 2026 update on the Major Road Network and Large Local Majors (MRN/LLM) programme.

  This states that, during the review, 10 schemes were withdrawn on the grounds that the promoting local authority could no longer afford its funding contribution.

  Those schemes are:

  • Shrewsbury North Western Relief Road (NWRR)
  • Warrington Western Link Road
  • Rocket Junction Liverpool – M62 J4 / A58
  • Sheffield Innovation Corridor Road
  • A13/ A126 East Facing Slip Roads
  • A1237 YORR dualling Phase 2 – Wetherby Rd to A19
  • Aylesbury Eastern Link
  • Shipley Eastern Congestion Relief Road
  • West Quay Road Realignment, Southampton
  • A17 Pullover Junction

  

  The picture I have used here is of the NWRR, whose unaffordability I have written about quite a lot and which was finally cancelled by Shropshire County Council in February.

  The 15 remaining schemes were confirmed as being removed from the programme (i.e. by the DfT) following the finalisation of the review.

  Those schemes are:

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  2026.10.27

• Exclusive: DfT finally kills off all zombie schemes

  The Department for Transport (DfT) has confirmed that all the local road schemes that were not listed in March as continuing following a review launched last year have now been officially pulled.

  It has told me that it is progressing only the 16 major road network/large local major (MRN/LLM) schemes confirmed in March and that local authorities with schemes that are not among the 16 have been informed.

  Until this point, reporting has only been ad hoc and sporadic. Following my reporting last Friday, I have now seen several more local and specialist media reports of MPs and/or local authorities being told that their MRN/LLM schemes, which were apparently still under review, are no more.

  For example, the Gazette and Herald has confirmed the demise of the A350 Melksham Bypass.

  In a letter to local LibDem MP Brian Mathew, roads minister Justin Madders blamed the Tories for not funding the scheme, and the DfT told me that MRN/LLM programme launched by the previous government was “not properly funded”.

  But the current government boasted last July that it had found “over £92 billion from the Spending Review settlement” to deliver

  the biggest boost to England’s transport infrastructure in a generation

  Out of this £92bn, the government chose to allocate just £1bn for local roads, to be shared between the so-called structures fund and the MRN/LLM.

  Madders made no mention of climate change but Mathew wrote on Facebook:

  I will keep pushing for other ways to ease transport worries, particularly better public transport and improved rail and bus services to get more people out of their cars.

  Meanwhile, Highways magazine reported that:

  Cheshire East Council is ‘deeply disappointed’ that the Department for Transport (DfT) has removed the planned improvements to the A500 from the Government’s Major Road Network Programme

  And the BBC has reported (separately) that the Blyth Relief Road, the A509 Isham bypass and the M5 Junction 9 scheme have all been canned.

  Essex Live has reported:

  Major A127 improvement work plans completely scrapped in ‘extremely disappointing’ move

  

  Notts CC leader Mick Barton with East Midlands mayor Claire Ward

  I have also worked out why the DfT has referred to 25 schemes remaining under review following the March announcement that 16 of 42 schemes put under review in July 2025 would continue.

  (more…)

  2026.10.12

• Zombie schemes finally being put out of their misery

  It looks like ministers have begun the task of officially putting the 26 zombie local road schemes out of their misery, more than six months after it became clear to anyone who was paying attention that they were all but dead.

  As I reported in LTT/TransportXtra in July:

  Confusion surrounds a raft of local road upgrades after a Government review announced last summer, with many councils still awaiting decisions on their bids amid huge funding pressures.

  The DfT said in March that of 42 schemes major road network (MRN) or large local major (LLM) schemes placed under review as part of the 2025 Spending Review, just 16 “will continue”.
  
  This left 26 schemes in limbo…

  There were supposed to be formal decisions on these “later in the summer”, but it never happened.

  Now, a couple of schemes have been officially killed off.

  The Alton Herald reports:

  The Government has scrapped plans for major improvements to the A31 through Farnham, according to the town’s MP.
  
  Gregory Stafford, the Conservative MP for Farnham and Bordon, has called the decision a “betrayal” and accused the Government of failing his constituents.
  
  Mr Stafford said Roads Minister Justin Madders telephoned him on Thursday evening (October 8) to confirm the scheme would not proceed.

  Given that it has been obvious for a while that the scheme was canned and that the minister phoned him personally, Stafford throwing his toys out of his pram seems a bit ungrateful.

  

  people standing in a field looking at a map

  Meanwhile, the Derbyshire Times reports:

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  2026.10.09

• Spring, summer, autumn: Councils still in the dark over zombie schemes

  Now that the summer is officially over, I have returned to the issue of the zombie local road schemes that appeared in the spring not to have survived a review – and it appears that promises to clarify their status in “the summer” have not been honoured.

  The story starts with a review of Major Road Network and Large Local Majors (MRN/LLM) programme announced last year, which led to the announcement in March that 16 schemes “will progress”, leaving 26 effectively, but not officially scrapped.

  As I have reported, the DfT said that these schemes were still under review, with a decision expected “later in the summer”.

  But now it’s September.

  Wiltshire Council told me that it has not heard anything further about its funding bid for the A350 Melksham bypass, while Gloucestershire CC seems to have picked up that the can had been kicked further down the road.

  

  In July it indicated that it was going to carry on progressing its scheme for new M5 junction and a bypass for the A46 near Tewkesbury, including spending more public money on it, but noted that the government funding was still uncertain. A paper to its Cabinet stated:

  (more…)

  2026.09.04

• Another Schrödinger’s road scheme

  Confusion abounds over which local road upgrades are potentially going ahead with Department for Transport (DfT) funding, something that seems to originate with the department not being straightforward about the status of schemes that were culled in a recent review.

  In the context of the government’s statement that it will cut the DfT’s capital investment budget by £700m to help pay for the Defence Investment Plan, the BBC reports:

  Council chiefs fear a planned new motorway junction could be “sacrificed” in the government’s proposal to reallocate funds to defence.
  …
  County councillor Julian Tooke, who leads on infrastructure on the council, said: “We are very concerned that Gloucestershire’s need for improvements to junction 9 of the M5 and the A46 may get sacrificed.”
  
  The Department for Transport (DfT) said it will not comment on funding prospects for junction 9 at this stage

  The penny does not seem to have dropped that the scheme was effectively shelved when it was not among the 16 Major Road Network and Large Local Majors (MRN/LLM) schemes that it was announced in March would

  continue following the 2025 MRN review

  

  That was a reference to this announcement last July, when the DfT gave a list of 42 schemes “under consideration” – i.e. being reviewed. The M5 scheme was among them, albeit that it had only been listed for outline business case development costs.

  By implication, it is not “continuing”. I don’t know why the DfT cannot just say that.

  In April, Transport Action Network wrote to the DfT to ask for clarification of the 26 schemes that were in the original list of (42) schemes under consideration and not part of the “continuing” 16.

  (more…)

  2026.07.16

• 26 local road upgrades put out of their misery

  Ministers have announced a further 16 local authority road schemes that survived the review initiated last year, but the schemes join a long queue with no funding any time soon.

  Last year the Department for Transport (DfT) claimed to have green-lit 28 major road network (MRN) or large local major (LLM) schemes, albeit that many were already in construction and others only working on their business cases.

  It announced that a further list of (42) schemes were “under consideration”, with transport secretary Heidi Alexander telling MPs that these schemes “now need to be reviewed”.

  

  Today, Alexander revealed that only 16 of these schemes had survived the review process: She said in a statement:

  The previous government left us with an unrealistic and unaffordable programme of schemes which we have had to review in the best interests of local and national taxpayers.

  She stressed that:

  this represents a government funding commitment of around £1 billion, subject to each scheme securing the necessary business case and other approvals in due course.

  She added:

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  2026.03.26

• Council road schemes and broken bridges to share £1bn

  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.

  (more…)

  2025.10.29

• Labour makes £1bn go a long way

  It’s still unclear what budget, if any, the Department for Transport (DfT) has for the local road enhancement schemes that it “green lit” in July and the roads minister’s reply to a parliamentary question has muddied the waters.

  By way of a reminder, in August I asked the DfT under FOI what the combined or individual budgets are for Major Road Network (MRN) and Large Local Major (LLM) schemes over the period of the spending review.

  It implicitly admitted that “this information” exists, but refused to disclose it, claiming that:

  Ministers are actively considering matters that directly relate to this information, and further decisions are expected to be made in due course.

  As I have observed, the absence of a clear budget for MRN/LLM schemes leaves Labour looking like it is guilty of what it criticised the Tories for – making unfunded transport spending announcements.

  

  In June the DfT announced a Structures Fund (in title case) as part of a £1bn package that also included £590m for the Lower Thames Crossing (LTC).

  That same month, the 10-year infrastructure strategy said the government was “investing £1 billion to enhance the road network and create a new Structures Fund that will repair major structures like bridges, flyovers and collapsed roads”.

  That billion could include the £590m for the LTC, which is part of the overall road network, although that would involve an element of double counting as that sum is promised elsewhere in the strategy.

  But this is where it gets murky. In its July press release, the DfT said it was “providing £1 billion to enhance the local road network and create a new structures fund”.

  (more…)

  2025.10.22

• Up to its old tricks: DfT conceals local road upgrade budget

  The Department for Transport (DfT) has confirmed that there is a budget for local road upgrades in England for the next four years but has refused to say what that budget is.

  The secret fund will pay for two categories of local authority upgrade – the Major Road Network (MRN) and Large Local Majors (LLM), which previously fell under a funding stream called the National Roads Fund (NRF) that also included National Highways’ funding.

  A DfT spokesperson has effectively confirmed that the NRF no longer exists but did refer to an MRN/LLM programme.

  Using the Freedom of Information Act, I asked the DfT what the individual or combined budgets were for the MRN and LLMs for the period covered by the Spending Review, which is up to and including 2029-30. It implicitly confirmed that this information exists by explicitly refusing to provide it.

  The DfT may be following a tried and tested PR strategy of announcing a large headline figure and then the smaller allocations within that – effectively re-announcing the same cash as it did this week. But it may be that the total budget is never stated.

  The DfT previously told me that the MRN/LLM funding falls under the £24bn capital funding for strategic and local roads up to 2030 that was announced in the spending review, with further announcements “in due course”.

  The government has since announced that the third Road Investment Strategy (RIS 3) will get nearly £25bn up to 2031. A large proportion of this will come from the £24bn, although not all of the cash for the RIS will be capital funding. Nearly 70% of the “interim settlement” of £4.8bn for the current year is capital.

  (more…)

  2025.09.05

• Labour copies Tories with unfunded scheme pledges

  I have had confirmation from the Department for Transport (DfT) that the Major Road Network (MRN) and Large Local Majors (LLM) are still a “programme” to fund local road upgrades but the DfT remains reluctant to be straight about how much is in the funding pot, perhaps because it isn’t very much or perhaps because it wants to makes its own re-announcement.

  As I have written before Labour ministers previously made a fake announcement about a “green light” for 28 local road upgrades of which only two were newly approved, 10 were in construction and 16 awaiting business cases and therefore dependent on how much money the DfT has to pay its share or their costs.

  

  In response to a question about how much money is in the combined or individual MRN and LLM budgets, the DfT told me:

  The Spending Review committed a total of £24bn of capital funding for road schemes in England over the period from 2026/27 to 2029/30, which will cover both strategic and local roads. The MRN/LLM programme is a part of that figure, and further details of this and other programmes that make up the £24bn total will be provided in due course.

  It didn’t even say that it will reveal the budget for the MRN/LLM programme “in due course”, just that it will provide “further details”.

  Labour ministers have been very critical of the previous government for announcing schemes that do not have funding but seem happy to do the same.

  I have reminded the DfT that my request for information is covered by the Freedom of Information Act.

  2025.08.06