Secretary of State for Transport (): During this Parliament there
has been a step change in public investment in infrastructure.
The Autumn Statement protected the public capital budget at
record levels, meaning government will invest over £600 billion
over the next five years. The Chancellor has announced over £40bn
of capital investment in transport across the next two financial
years, which will drive significant improvements to rail and
roads right across our country.
Since agreeing this programme, we have seen headwinds from
inflation, triggered by the impact of Putin's illegal war in
Ukraine, as well as supply chain disruption as the global economy
recovers from the effects of Covid-19.
These headwinds have made it difficult to deliver on our capital
programmes, and we recognise that some schemes are going to take
longer than expected. Refocusing our efforts will allow us to
double down on delivering the rest of our capital programme. This
will place our transport investments on a sustainable footing and
allow us to support the Government’s priorities of halving
inflation, growing the economy and reducing debt.
In terms of major road investments, Road Investment Strategy
(RIS) 2 schemes will continue to progress. The A27 Arundel and
A5036 Princess Way in Liverpool both face a range of challenges
including environmental considerations and ongoing scope and
design changes to ensure stakeholders’ views are fully
considered. As a result, these schemes will be deferred to RIS 3
(covering 2025 – 2030). 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.
To date we have spent over £800m on planning the Lower Thames
Crossing. It is one of the largest planning applications ever,
and it is important we get this right. We remain committed to the
Lower Thames Crossing, and the Development Consent Order process
will be an important opportunity to consult further to ensure
there is an effective and deliverable plan. In order to allow
time for this process, and given wider pressures on RIS, we will
look to rephase construction by 2 years.
In rail, HS2 is making good progress, and we have already spent
over £20 billion delivering Phase One between London and the West
Midlands, supporting 2,500 businesses and creating over 29,000
jobs. The Government is prioritising HS2’s initial services
between Old Oak Common in London and Birmingham Curzon Street to
provide delivery of passenger benefits as soon as possible. We
remain committed to delivering HS2 services to Euston, and will
address affordability pressures to ensure the overall spending
profile is manageable. We will therefore take the time to ensure
we have an affordable and deliverable station design, delivering
Euston alongside high-speed infrastructure to Manchester. We
continue to take the High Speed Rail (Crewe – Manchester) Bill
through Parliament, and the Crewe-to-Manchester section will also
form the foundations for improved rail services in the North
through Northern Powerhouse Rail.
The Government is committed to delivering HS2 Phase 2a between
Birmingham and Crewe. We have seen significant inflationary
pressure and increased project costs, and so we will rephase
construction by two years, with an aim to deliver high-speed
services to Crewe and the North West as soon as possible after
accounting for the delay in construction. Work continues on
progressing commitments made in the Integrated Rail Plan to
develop HS2 East, the proposed route for HS2 services between the
West and East Midlands, and to consider the most effective way to
take HS2 trains to Leeds. HS2 continues to represent a very
significant investment into our national infrastructure,
levelling up communities right across our country, providing a
net-zero alternative to car travel and domestic flights, and
training a skilled workforce for the UK’s future construction
industry.
We remain committed to supporting all forms of transport and have
invested over £850m in active travel between 2020/21 and 2022/23.
Despite the need to deliver efficiency in all areas of our
budget, we will still commit to spend at least a further £100m
capital into active travel over the remainder of the spending
period, as part of a total of around £3bn investment in active
travel over this Parliament, including from City and Region
Sustainable Transport settlements and National Highways. We will
review these levels as soon as practically possible.
These are the difficult but responsible decisions we are taking,
that put the priorities of the British people first, in
controlling inflation and reducing government debt. They continue
our record investment into our national infrastructure, which
will continue to play a vital role in growing our economy and
delivering long-term prosperity.
