GBP 1.6bn transport schemes hit a red light in review of spending

From the Isles of Scilly to the North, the Midlands and the Home Counties proposed projects have been put on hold pending a government review.

The disclosure came as councils around the country learnt exactly where government cuts of £1 billion will fall this year. The Department for Transport (DfT) announced last month that it would cut grants to local authorities worth GBP 309 million this year. Yesterday it emerged that among the savings were GBP 17.2 million from the road safety budget and £7.9 million earmarked to alleviate urban congestion.

Many councils whose projects have been put on hold were taken aback by the scale of the Government’s rethink. On his first day in his Westminster office, the Transport Secretary, Philip Hammond, acknowledged that he would consider every spending request through the “jaundiced eye” of someone who had spent three years as Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury.

He announced that all transport initiatives not already under contract would be suspended pending financial review in the autumn and the outcome of a joint Treasury/DfT rethink of how spending decisions are made.

“I am taking this action to ensure that no taxpayers’ money is spent unnecessarily on transport schemes that are now under review,” he said. “If we are to succeed in reducing the UK’s record budget deficit, it is vital that not a single penny is wasted and we get the maximum value for money for every project.”

Three of the suspended schemes had received conditional approval from his predecessor. These were Walton Bridge, Surrey, Reading station highway improvements and a ferry link to the Isles of Scilly. The DfT said it could “give no assurances on its intention to fund any schemes that were awarded conditional approval by the previous Government”.

Thirty-nine other projects had completed the first stage of the funding process. These include the New Wear Bridge, Loughborough inner relief road, the Nottingham ring road and a trolley bus system in Leeds. A further 19 projects from Essex to Northumberland were under consideration.

Transport professionals were preparing for hefty cuts to the GPB 15.9 billion transport budget. “We are talking about a lot of money out of an already relatively small budget,” Professor Stephen Glaister, director of the RAC Foundation, said. “This does not bode well for motorists or the travelling public.” Edmund King, the president of the AA, said: “No one will welcome the cutting of funding for local road safety and congestion-busting initiatives.”

Leeds City Council said that a rethink of its metro system would be “of great concern to us” and urged Mr Hammond to visit to see first-hand “the importance of this scheme”.

Key projects under review

Walton Bridge, Surrey

Heysham-M6 link road, Lancashire

Loughborough inner relief road, Leicestershire

Reading station highway improvements

Mersey Gateway Bridge, Holton Borough Council

Bexhill to Hastings link road, East Sussex County Council

Kingskerswell bypass, Devon County Council

Leeds new generation transport (metro)

Watford Junction interchange, Hertfordshire

Lincoln Eastern bypass