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A417 Traffic Improvement Scheme

I congratulate the hon. Member for Cotswold (Mr. Clifton-Brown) on securing this second Adjournment debate in 18 months on what he refers to as the missing link on the A417 near Gloucester. I thank him for his constructive engagement with and his commitment to this campaign, which is important to his constituents and to the wider region. I will return to the issue of national importance later in my speech. Since the last Adjournment debate on this issue 18 months ago, the Highways Agency has undertaken a wide-ranging and thorough review of possible improvement options to address the existing conditions on the Cowley to Brockworth section of the A417. The report that I sent to the hon. Gentleman and his colleagues the hon. Members for Tewkesbury (Mr. Robertson) and for Forest of Dean (Mr. Harper) on 12 March details the work undertaken and conclusions reached during this review. The hon. Member for Cotswold alluded to that report. The review carried out by the Highways Agency has left no stone unturned in an effort to identify whether a more affordable option can be found to improve the existing conditions on this section of the A417. The hon. Gentleman will be aware that the views of key stakeholders have been an important part of the information gathering during the review. Indeed, I know that he gave his own helpful and supportive views personally to the Highways Agency as part of the value management stakeholder workshop in March 2007. The value management exercise was very useful. It enabled the agency to identify various options put forward by stakeholders that might contribute to a more affordable scheme and then rank them to establish which elements would be worth considering further. Each of the worthy options was then assessed to identify the impact that they would have on safety and journey time reliability, and then compared with the improvement achieved by the major scheme. This review has confirmed that the major scheme already developed by the Highways Agency would capture virtually all the available benefits, provide optimum value for money and be a long-term solution. As the hon. Gentleman rightly points out, following an extensive review we have returned to the original proposal. The hon. Gentleman pointed out the increase in costs of the major scheme. I know that he is acutely aware of the issue. It is why the region requested in 2005 that the Highways Agency carry out a review to examine the possibility of a lower cost solution. Since that last debate the costs have increased from £150 million to £250 million, and that rise is of such an order that it would be entirely appropriate to offer some explanation of why the figures have changed so much. There are three reasons. First, construction inflation has been far higher than was previously predicted. Secondly, a later date has been assumed for a possible start date. Thirdly, estimates include the historic costs spent on the scheme. As it turned out, construction inflation between 2001 and 2006 was higher than predicted and added some £50 million to the cost. In addition, delaying the scheme to beyond 2013 takes it beyond the construction period for the Olympics, when inflation is expected to be even higher. In fact, inflation for the period adds about £45 million to the cost. I understand simply that the major construction scheme is taking place at the same time as construction on the Olympics and resources and materials will be available only at a premium. The increases led us to look at other ways to reduce the cost of the major scheme. One would be to build the scheme in a number of phases, spreading the cost over a number of years. However, that increases the costs by at least a further £30 million—13 per cent. of the total. It would also extend the period of construction, which would inevitably cause additional congestion during the construction phase. On balance, there is no doubt that it would be better to build the whole scheme under one contract. In a world of finite resources, we must ensure that our transport investment is focused on the most important schemes. That is why in July 2005 we invited the south-west region to give us advice on transport priorities with an indicative funding allocation for major schemes in the south-west. The regional funding allocation, or RFA, process has, for the first time, given regions a say in making decisions about transport schemes that affect them. The RFA process is an opportunity for people in the region to work together to develop a realistic, prioritised and affordable transport investment programme to support the region's high-level objectives for jobs, the economy, housing and the environment. It is central to our thinking that the regions are better placed than the men and women of Whitehall to advise decision makers on how transport can help to make the regions even better places. We backed the RFA process with massively increased investment funding. We have increased our annual spending on such schemes by 50 per cent. since 2001-02. For example, the Highways Agency has invested £16 million improving the Commonhead junction on the A419 in Swindon. The agency is also spending £65 million to provide a much needed bypass for Blunsdon on the same route. We intend to provide almost £865 million over the next 10 years for regionally significant transport schemes in the south-west. However, the hon. Gentleman and others have suggested that we are not making enough money available in the south-west. I shall interrupt my flow at this point to reassure the hon. Gentleman and the hon. Member for Tewkesbury that I understand absolutely that when a constituency MP is dealing with the horrific aftermath and tragedy of people being killed on a local road it makes little difference, particularly to the families, for a Government Minister to talk about the record amounts of money being invested in road schemes elsewhere in that region. I am aware of the importance of providing safe roads in the region represented by the hon. Member for Cotswold and in other parts of the country. That does not detract from the fact that we are spending record amounts of money. I fully understand the hon. Gentleman's personal concerns about the accident record on that stretch of road, which are in no way obviated by the levels of investment.