The Conservative Party is to consider pledging £10bn to local highway authorities as part of a five-year programme to upgrade and ease congestion on A and B roads.
The economic competitiveness policy group, chaired by former cabinet minister, John Redwood, has also advised the shadow cabinet to promise a major expansion of the motorway network which it says is ‘too small for current requirements’, let alone an anticipated 18% growth in car use by 2025. More than £4bn extra investment could be levered in from the private sector annually, the group predicts, to ‘accelerate’ the motorway expansion programme.
Widening the M25, M6 and entire length of the M1 and A1 from London to the Scottish border, and dualling the A303 to southwest England, and the A14 and A12 in eastern England, would be priorities. Improvements to carriageways and junctions on local roads ‘overburdened by traffic’ are also needed, it urges, to be paid for by imposing charges on foreign-operated lorries – reviving a scheme spiked by the Labour Government.
East Sussex County Council leader, Cllr Peter Jones, local government representative on the Redwood-chaired group, told Surveyor that local authorities had been ‘starved of central government funding for road improvements’.
From 2000 to 2006, only £560M was spent on £5M-plus local road upgrades, he said. ‘We’ve had to fight like the devil to get funding for the Hastings to Bexhill link road,’ said Jones, having to persuade the Southeast region to back the project over a long list of other worthy schemes.
An assessment of funding required around England, undertaken for the group, highlighted the need for a programme in the order of £10bn, said Jones. Such a spending hike would require new forms of finance. Richard Wills, president of the County Surveyors’ Society, and Lincolnshire County Council director for development, backed the need for ‘a strategic road network of consistent standard’ around England, ‘which should be dual carriageway’. Wills also agreed that more funding was needed for local road upgrades.
Billions of pounds were earmarked for schemes involving road-user charging under the transport innovation fund, but ‘little was available for more conventional solutions to congestion’.
But the Campaign to Protect Rural England hoped David Cameron’s shadow cabinet would support the recommendations of John Gummer’s quality of life policy review, rather than Redwood’s advice.
Ben Stafford, CPRE head of campaigns, claimed Cameron ‘will struggle to convince voters that his interest in protecting the environment is genuine if he plumps for Redwood over Gummer’. He said it was ‘crunch time on the environment for the Conservatives’.
Register now for full access
Register just once to get unrestricted, real-time coverage of the issues and challenges facing UK transport and highways engineers.
Full website content includes the latest news, exclusive commentary from leading industry figures and detailed topical analysis of the highways, transportation, environment and place-shaping sectors.
Use the link below to register your details for full, free access.
Already a registered? Login
