Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, made a statement in Parliament on Monday (29/07/2024), and identified major ‘black holes’ in the government’s financing, requiring an immediate response with major cost savings.
Two significant transport projects were cancelled: the controversial plan for a road tunnel under Stonehenge and the £320m A27 Arundel bypass. During the election, Labour said that the money saved from the latter project would be used to “fix up to one million potholes a year”, but she made no announcement that the commitment would be retained.
Image: National Highways
RHA Managing Director, Richard Smith said: “We are disappointed at the announcements that key infrastructure projects – the A303 Tunnel at Stonehenge and the A27 Arundel bypass will be cancelled. Investment in the Strategic Road Network is a critical part of the Government’s mission to grow the economy. These vital schemes are long overdue, not just providing a link between the southeast and southwest, but also safeguarding our cultural heritage.
“A failure to invest in our road network now will mean a failure to tackle the growing problem of congestion on Britain’s roads and choke the economic recovery. It’s estimated that congestion costs the UK economy a minimum of £30.8bn a year. In the short-term, the cost of an HGV stuck in stationary traffic for an hour is £120, a crippling cost at a time when businesses are under serious financial pressures.
“In order to drive forward economic growth, we continue to urge the new Government to prioritise investment in key national infrastructure projects to tackle congestion, improve road safety, support business and keep the supply-chain moving at optimum levels.”
RAC head of policy Simon Williams said: “These budget cuts have created more questions than answers about exactly when we’ll start to see the Government improve the condition of Britain’s broken roads.
“The cancellation of the A27 Arundel bypass, from which Labour promised to allocate £320m for pothole repairs in its election manifesto, simply doesn’t scratch the surface of the problem. We’re still waiting to hear whether a much larger sum, to the tune of £8.3bn from the cancelled northern leg of HS2, will be spent on local road maintenance over the next 11 years as promised by the previous Government. It’s this long-term certainty of funding that local authorities so desperately need to plan long-term maintenance programmes, resurface their worst roads, and carry out preventative treatment that stops potholes forming in the first place.
“Following last week’s news from the National Audit Office that the extent of the pothole problem isn’t truly understood by Government, now is the time for change. The new Transport Secretary has a real opportunity to deliver lasting improvements to the quality of the nation’s roads.”
Jakob Pfaudler, AA CEO, said: “Efficient transport infrastructure covering both road and rail is essential to the economic viability of the country. Congestion wastes billions of pounds each year* and can fuel inflation as the bulk of goods and passenger journeys are made by road. Government figures show 80% of freight travels by road ** and 86% of all passenger kilometres travelled used cars, vans, and taxis.***
“We understand the Government needs to make savings and we would prefer to see this come from large infrastructure projects such as the A303 Stonehenge Tunnel being delayed rather than from the commitment to fund and fix the roads to remove the scourge of potholes.
“In the AA Motorists’ Manifesto, we indicated that our members are not in favour of massive road building schemes but believe more can – and should be done – to improve the safety of the current road and motorway network.
“By far the most important issue for 96% of AA members, in terms of transport policy, is the state of the roads, so while we understand that some longer-term projects will be delayed, we still need the commitment from Government for more long-term, ring-fenced funding for more permanent repairs of our roads.”
* https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200405/cmselect/cmtran/218/218we64.htm
**Transport Statistics Great Britain: 2022 Freight – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
***Transport Statistics Great Britain: 2022 Domestic Travel – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
