Ministers have been accused of ‘wasting’ almost £1bn over the past six years on aborted or delayed transport projects.
Using Department for Transport figures, the Conservative Party claims the Government has spent around £284M on high-profile tram projects in Manchester, Leeds, Merseyside and South Hampshire which were later cancelled or scaled down.
In addition, an estimated £26.5M was spent preparing the doomed A303 improvement scheme at Stonehenge, and the proposed M6 Expressway between Manchester and Birmingham, cancelled in July.
A further £354M has been poured into Crossrail and Thameslink 2000, while £210M has been invested in Stratford International Station.
County Surveyors’ Society vice-president, Richard Wills, said: ‘With most large transport infrastructure projects taking 10-15 years to complete, more political consensus would help prevent wasted effort and money.
‘From a professional point of view, the greater agreement there is among political parties on transport policy, the more likely we are to be able to minimise the overall costs of projects,’ he told Surveyor.