£300 million is budgeted for advancing work on the national road network; for enabling works in advance of the Managed Motorway (hard shoulder running) schemes announced in January, and on advancing planned capital maintenance, e.g. safety improvements to the central reserve on the M1 between J32-35a. The planned roads programme adds 520 additional lane miles including 340 lane miles of hard shoulder running.
As well as the work on the national network, £100 million is budgeted to relieve congestion on the regional A46 Newark to Widmerpool scheme, by advancing construction (dualling) by two years. This is an important freight route and will support the Newark growth point.
£300 million was budgeted to advance the purchase of additional diesel railway carriages, scheduled as part of the High Level Output Specification (HLOS) agreement for increasing capacity and relieving overcrowding on the rail network (HLOS agreement from 2009 to 2014) that was set out in the July 2007 Rail White Paper. However, the £1.1 billion electrification of the Great Western Main Line to Swansea and the line between Liverpool and Manchester announced on 23 July 2009, means that there will be far less need for diesel trains and so the previously planned procurement has been superseded. A revised rolling stock strategy, taking into account the reduced need for diesel trains will be published in due course.
April May June Total Q1 Budget Q1 A46 2.4 3.3 2.1 7.8 16.4 National schemes 9.4 14.8 19.2 43.4 44.1 Total HA 11.9 18.0 21.3 51.3 60.5 Note: Table totals subject to roundings.
Spending on national highway schemes is very close to budgeted expenditure at this point (98 per cent.). Delays on concluding negotiations for access have led to slower spend on the A46.
Furthermore, as announced in Building Britain’s Future in June, the Department for Transport is contributing £350 million from the 2009-10 capital budget to the Government’s housing fiscal stimulus initiative to deliver 20,000 additional energy efficient, affordable homes.