Ministers have quietly scrapped more than two dozen new road schemes in an attempt to save more than £1bn, raising questions about Labour’s commitment to regional economic growth. The cull of 25 highway projects highlights the government’s patchy record in delivering transport infrastructure when new prime minister Andy Burnham is pushing the devolution of powers to the regions as a way to kick-start the UK economy. Ten of the schemes were cancelled earlier in the year, while councils were told this month about the demise of a further 15.
One government figure said ministers had decided to be “honest” about which schemes would proceed. “These were on a long list of projects kept by the previous government but were totally unfunded,” the person said. “Instead of keeping people in limbo . . . we needed to be honest.” The axed projects include the A38 Derby junction, the Ely-to-Cambridge A10 improvement scheme, the Sheffield Innovation Corridor Road, the M5 Junction 9 and the A46 Newark bypass. The cull is separate from a push to find savings of £700mn from the roads budget to help Downing Street find the extra funding for its defence priorities. That announcement in July came only three months after the Department for Transport had included references to some of those now being axed in its five-year road investment strategy.
Number 10 is under pressure to find billions of pounds from across Whitehall as it seeks to deliver a big boost to defence spending amid pressure from the US and growing anxiety about the threat from Russia. It is also prioritising funding for the troubled HS2 high-speed railway project, which is costing the transport department an annual £7bn yet is not expected to open for another decade. Transport experts criticised the highway cuts as short-sighted. “None of this was road for roads’ sake.
It is all tied to housing, jobs or economic growth in these areas,” said Michael Dnes, transport adviser at consultancy PF Global. “The pressures on government are very real but this means that by 2030 the number of roads being built in this country will be about the lowest it has ever been.” Road construction has fallen for the past three years and by the end of next year is expected to be about 40 per cent lower than in 2022, according to the Construction Products Association. Noble Francis, economics director at the CPA, said the government kept announcing billions of pounds of funding for roads “yet every single year all we see in reality is more and more road projects paused, delayed and cancelled. “This only means road quality gets worse, travelling gets worse and slower, badly affecting the UK economy and productivity.” Proposing and then halting infrastructure projects such as roads can cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of pounds in development and pre-construction costs as well as consultancy fees. The latest cuts are expected to take the total amount of abortive spending since 2024 beyond £1bn.
The transport department said the 25 cancelled projects had not been funded by the previous government. “Given the challenging financial picture we inherited, we have had to make difficult decisions on a number of road projects and can only progress schemes that are affordable for taxpayers,” it said. The DFT said it was proceeding with 16 other major road schemes as well as £7.3bn of repairs to local roads and fixing potholes. It is also pressing ahead with the Lower Thames Crossing, the most expensive road project in UK history at a cost of up to £11bn.
Abby Coften, chief executive of campaign group Transport Action Network, welcomed the cancellations that showed “expensive, outdated road-building plans are not the answer to the UK’s transport challenges”. “Scrapping these schemes once and for...
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