Pressure is building on ministers to reconsider complex and costly road schemes after influential MPs suggested that mega-projects such as the £9bn Lower Thames Crossing (LTC) may have to be cancelled to pay for vital maintenance.
The Transport Select Committee has argued that given increasing costs, net zero commitments and ageing assets, the Government should ensure future Road Investment Strategy (RIS) portfolios prioritise day-to-day maintenance over complex expansion projects.
The call to rethink the mega-projects set to dominate the next RIS follows similar advice from the National Audit Office last November and a call last month from the Government’s own advisers, the Climate Change Committee, for a rethink of its road building plans.
MPs criticised ministers and National Highways for continuing to promote complex and costly schemes, despite a record of overspending and under-delivery.
Committee chair Iain Stewart MP, said: ‘National Highways overspent and underdelivered against its targets for RIS 1 yet became even more ambitious in RIS 2. Schemes have continually been pushed back, adding to confusion and uncertainty that the RIS process was designed to prevent.
‘In addition, the evidence we received indicates that the majority of road users want the Government to prioritise keeping the network in good, safe condition. An adequate proportion of the strategic roads budget needs to be prioritised for such maintenance work.’
He added: ‘My Committee also believes that the Department for Transport needs to ensure that future Road Investment Strategies are deliverable and reconsider the viability of its expensive enhancement projects. The Department should introduce more robust measures to assess deliverability when setting a road investment strategy and must also produce a plan for how it will better anticipate and deal with risks to timely delivery.’
National Highways has said it aims to shift its focus to smaller schemes, yet big budget projects such as LTC and the Stonehenge Tunnel still make up a huge part of its plans for 2025-2030.
The new report from the Transport Select Committee notes that National Highways had referred to the A303 Stonehenge Tunnel and the LTC as ‘two of the most complex road projects in recent decades’ and ‘confirmed that projects from RIS 2, including expensive, complex projects such as the Lower Thames Crossing, would be included in the portfolio’.
Earlier this month, transport secretary Mark Harper granted the £2bn Stonehenge scheme planning permission against the advice of the Planning Inspectorate.
The cross-party group of MPs also pointed out that government investment plans for the strategic road network (SRN) could impact its decarbonisation duties and that its strategy for the roads sector relies on a rapid switch to zero-emission vehicles.
The Department for Transport (DfT) forecasts that traffic will increase, and experts have suggested the uptake of clean vehicles is unlikely to be fast enough to mitigate this.
MPs called on the DfT to model SRN demand-management scenarios, arguing that this would inform the debate as to whether increased traffic should be accommodated through new roads.
They also called for a DfT strategy setting out how the SRN will meet the fuel needs for the future vehicle fleet.
Maintenance works on an M25 viaduct near Watford last year
MPs said there is a compelling case for each RIS portfolio to be smaller in scope to avoid continual deferral of projects from one RIS to the next, or for the Government to dedicate more resources to ensuring timely completion of projects.
They added that ministers should implement more robust and transparent measures so that a wider range of stakeholders can flag risks to schemes. To boost transparency, the DfT should work with National Highways to introduce a ‘live’ dashboard with up-to-date information on schemes in each RIS, MPs said.
The report also notes that sub-national transport bodies (STBs) have no codified role in the prioritisation of RIS schemes, ‘despite good examples of collaborative planning between them and National Highways’, and recommends that National Highways’ licence be updated to include a formalised engagement process with all STBs.
AA president Edmund King OBE, who gave evidence to the Committee, said: ‘We fully support the Committee’s conclusion that the Government should prioritise strategic road maintenance over major new road schemes.
‘Indeed, I actually told the committee that the number one priority is the actual state of the roads. Get rid of the potholes. We are pleased they have listened.'
