The Department for Transport (DfT) has backtracked on a pledge from the transport secretary to fully fund a road scheme in Shropshire as the costs soar.
Last October, Mark Harper said in an interview with the BBC that the Government would fund 100% of the North West Relief Road, near Shrewsbury, which is categorised as a Large Local Major (LLM) scheme.
He said: ‘Because of inflation, local authorities have struggled to meet their funding so we’ve committed to paying the whole cost, bringing forward when the project can be delivered.’
The DfT had awarded £54m to the scheme before Mr Harper’s intervention, which was taken by the local authority as a pledge to fully fund the project.
However, in a letter to campaigners the following month, a DfT policy advisor for the Major Road Network (MRN), only referred to a ‘potential financial uplift for the scheme’.
The change of rhetoric comes as doubts grow over how much the scheme is set to cost.
Shropshire has publicised a cost of £80.1m for the project, before the full business case, but two council reports in September identified that the actual cost could have skyrocketed to £175m.
The documents stated that even after an extra £28m - representing ‘the Council Investment requirement that has not yet been secured at OBC Stage’ - there will be a funding gap of £95.4m.
When this funding gap figure emerged, the council said it ‘should have been deleted’ from the reports and represented a ‘holding figure’, rather than an amount of borrowing that was required to be approved.
But Liberal Democrat councillor and transport campaigner Rob Wilson told the BBC that he had been asking in vain for an updated cost estimate since he was elected in 2021.
'Today at council the Conservatives proposed taking out a £95m loan to make up an unspecified funding gap,' he said.
'I asked why they would need £95m for an £87m road and was not given an answer.'
When Highways asked the DfT to clarify the transport secretary's pledge, a spokesperson pointed to the department’s webpage, which states 'the Relief Road will benefit from an uplift in government contribution from 85% to 100%’.
As Highways has reported, this webpage makes clear that increased funding for MRN and LLM schemes only extends to topping up its contribution from 85% to 100% of the cost assessed at the outline business case stage.
This is in recognition of the fact that, as Mr Harper acknowledged, actual costs are now significantly higher.
The DfT acknowledged that prime minister Rishi Sunak had announced increased funding for most existing MRN and LLM schemes but added: ‘These schemes however, still require business case approval in order to successfully attract the funding’.
The council has said that an up-to-date figure will be included in the full business case and will be considered this year before being shared with the DfT for approval.
Highways has approached the council for comment and has invited it to provide a current estimate of the scheme's costs.
