Chancellor George Osborne has announced funding for major transport infrastructure projects in the North of England and given a commitment to part-fund Crossrail 2.
In his Budget, which he described as ‘pro-infrastructure’, Mr Osborne announced both substantive funding for new road and rail schemes and development funding for possible future schemes.
He thanked Lord Adonis for his work as chair of the National Infrastructure Committee, which he said had made ‘a strong start’.
The government will allocate £60m to develop options for ‘High Speed 3’ between Leeds and Manchester, as well as options for improving other major city rail links.
It will also provide £80m, which it said, ‘together with a contribution from London, will allow Crossrail 2 to proceed’.
Mr Osborne has allocated of £16m funding to improve rail station facilities and will also provide £5m ‘for the development of options’ for improving the resilience of the rail line between Exeter and Newton Abbot.
The government has welcomed the recommendations of the Shaw Report into Network Rail and said it will respond in full later this year.
Improvements to the road network include an additional £161m for Highways England to accelerate two major projects to upgrade the M62 to a four-lane smart motorway between Warrington and Eccles and between Rochdale and Brighouse.
The government will also allocate £75m to Highways England for new northern road studies, including further developing the case for a Trans-Pennine tunnel between Sheffield and Manchester, and well as options to enhance the A66, A69 and the north-west quadrant of the M60.
Mr Osborne also announced £151m to fund new river crossings at both Lowestoft and Ipswich, subject to final business case approval. Ministers are now inviting further bids for the £475m Local Majors Fund announced in the 2015 Spending Review.
The government is setting out how £50m from the Pothole Action Fund will be allocated across England in 2016-17. It said this allow local authorities to fill nearly a million potholes.
It is also launching the process for drawing up its second Roads Investment Strategy, for the period 2020-21 to 2024-25.
Mr Osborne said fuel duty would be frozen for a sixth successive year. The government and Highways England will start the first trials of comparative fuel price signs on the M5 between Bristol and Exeter by the Spring.
The chancellor also announced plans, subject to consultation, to halve tolls on the Severn crossings.
The government and Highways England will develop an Innovation Strategy, including trials of driverless cars on the Strategic Road Network by the end of 2017. Midlands Connect will be established as a statutory sub-national transport body with statutory duties by the end of 2018 and the government will carry out feasibility work in this Parliament on four major roads in the Midlands.
Mr Osborne said the Budget invested in infrastructure and would ‘Redouble our efforts to make Britain fit for the future’.
Charles Clarke, partner in the planning and infrastructure department at Bircham Dyson Bell, commented: 'The Government has set some challenging targets for promoters of major projects to get funding from sources other than direct contributions from central government, especially Transport for London, who had their resource grant cut in last year’s autumn statement. Government has now invited TfL to bring forward proposals for financing infrastructure projects.
'We expect to see some innovative funding solutions coming forward for future projects, and hope Government will be receptive to them, if it wants to see these projects delivered.'
