Alexander announces slimmed-down major roads programme

Transport secretary Heidi Alexander has confirmed government cash for 16 major local road schemes worth about £1bn after a review of the government’s major highways programmes.

In July last year, Alexander announced a review of 41 of projects inherited from the previous government’s Major Road Network and Large Local Majors programme, saying they were “neither affordable nor got off the ground”.

Today (26 March), she said that 16 projects would be kept in the programme, including the Norwich Western Link, M5 junction 28 improvements and phase three of the A43 Northampton dualling scheme.

Alexander said: “Each of these schemes has the potential to deliver benefits such as unlocking housing and economic growth and reducing congestion at key locations.”

Funding for each will be conditional on local authorities satisfying the department that they have an acceptable business case.

Many of the other schemes that formed part of the review are being withdrawn “on the grounds that the local authority can no longer afford its funding contribution”, she said.

Today’s announcement came within the government’s Roads Investment Strategy (RIS) 3, covering the period between 2026 and 2031.

The strategy’s previous iteration, RIS2, listed 32 potential major projects to be developed for possible future delivery, which increased during the period.

But today’s RIS3 said that “was an overly ambitious list, and was ultimately unaffordable, and the number of potential schemes has been reduced to a more manageable number”.

The department is working with councils ahead of a summer announcement of further steps on the schemes that missed out, Alexander said.