Regions are hoping the transport innovation fund can get Highways Agency schemes off the ground that would otherwise take money from local transport plan projects.
The Southeast England and East Midlands regional development agencies have advised the Department for Transport that schemes to improve the A3 at Hindhead and the A46 from Newark to Widmerpool were good candidates for the productivity TIF schemes, it has emerged.
Both schemes were reluctantly put forward as regional priorities, despite the fact this would delay other schemes by absorbing funding for three years in the East Midlands and two years in the Southeast.