In a pre-Budget announcement, the transport secretary unveiled huge cuts and delays to transport schemes, including and delaying HS2 and strategic roads schemes and slashing funding for active travel.
In a written statement, less than a week before the Budget on 15 March, Mark Harper said that while the Government is prioritising HS2’s initial services between Old Oak Common in London and Birmingham Curzon Street it has to 'address affordability pressures to ensure the overall spending profile is manageable’.
The planned eastern entrance for HS2 at Euston
He said ministers ‘will therefore take the time to ensure we have an affordable and deliverable station design, delivering Euston alongside high-speed infrastructure to Manchester, implying that the central London terminus willbe delayed.
Mr Harper added that, while the government is 'committed' to delivering HS2 Phase 2a between Birmingham and Crewe, construction will be 'rephased' by two years.
In January chancellor Jeremy Hunt said he did not ‘see any conceivable circumstances in which that would not end up at Euston’.
Strategic road network
Mr Harper also announced delays to enhancement schemes on National Highways’ strategic road network.
Projects that were due to start work in the second (2020-25) Road Investment Strategy (RIS), will now begin in the third RIS (2025-30), while schemes in development for RIS 3 will be kicked back until RIS 4.
TheLower Thames Crossing (LTC), which was due to start in 2024, will be delayed for two years. The A27 Arundel and Port of Liverpool schemes will also be deferred until RIS 3 (2025-2030).
He said that while ministers ‘remain committed’ to the LTC, ‘the Development Consent Order process will be an important opportunity to consult further to ensure there is an effective and deliverable plan’.
The LTC is costed at up to £9bn and involves building a tunnel under the Thames to link Kent and Essex, along with associated roads.
Its application for development consent was resubmitted late last year, two years after National Highways had to withdraw an earlier application following advice from the Planning Inspectorate that it would reject it.
Although the project is nominally due to start construction next year, and therefore within RIS 2 this seems unlikely to happen, meaning that the delay is little more than accepting the near-inevitable.
Mr Harper added: 'Other schemes earmarked for RIS 3 will continue to be developed, in line with the statutory process, but for consideration for inclusion during RIS 4 (beyond 2030). Given many of these schemes were previously expected towards the end of RIS 3, this extra time will help ensure better planned and efficient schemes can be deployed more effectively.’
Active travel
He added that ministers still commit to spending 'at least a further £100m capital into active travel over the remainder of the spending period to 2025, 'as part of a total of around £3bn investment in active travel over this Parliament'.
In only July of last year, the Government announced it was due to spend around £3.8bn from April 2021 to March 2025 in active travel, under its second cycling and walking investment strategy.
Louise Haigh MP, Labour’s shadow transport secretary, responding to further delays to HS2, said: 'The North is yet again being asked to pay the price for staggering Conservative failure. Conservative chaos and chronic indecision is holding back jobs, growth and costing the taxpayer.'
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