Government reveals first detail of £1.3bn roads spend

The Transport Secretary Chris Grayling has set out how the Department for Transport (DfT) intends to distribute £1.3bn of roads funding announced in Chancellor Philip Hammond's Autumn Statement. The breakdown allocates £1.1bn for local highway authorities and £220m for Highways England to use to combat congestion.

There is still more detail to come. According to the DfT announcement, the £1.1bn includes £175m to improve the safety of the 50 most dangerous roads in England, plus a pot of £925m that will be made available to a process of competitive bidding for funds for local highway authorities. This is additional to the Highway Maintenance Challenge Fund. Details of a second tranche of Challenge Fund bidding are expected in the New Year.

Other roads spending announced in the Autumn Statement includes £27m confirmed for initial design and planning of a series of road upgrades to form a new Oxford-Cambridge Expressway. Grayling has given the go-ahead for work to start on the £95m Lincoln Eastern Bypass, with £50m from DfT. Other funding included in this week's statement but already announced last year includes £70m of the Pothole Action Fund for local authorities.

DfT has set out the details of how all the various funding pots will be dished out, including the dangerous roads of concern in each region, in a new 'Moving Britain Ahead' roads funding package.

The package allocates funding for authorities to use to develop business cases for 12 transport projects to be funded through the Large Local Majors Fund – for discrete projects deemed too big for funding through cities' and regions' Local Growth Fund allocations. 

Development of business cases to be completed in 2017/18 will allow DfT to decide which schemes to take forward, also through a competitive process, Grayling said.

The 12 Large Local Majors scheme allocations

Suffolk Energy Gateway new road - £1m

A1079/A164 Jocks Lodge Junction - £92,000

Shrewsbury North West Relief Road - £942,000

Tees Valley East-West connections - £300,000

Sheffield Mass Transit Scheme - £1.57m

Warrington Waterfront western link - £1m

Sheffield City Region Innovation Corridor - £1.4m

Manchester Metrolink airport extension to Terminal 2 - £2.1m

Melton Mowbray Eastern Distributor Road - £2.8m

New Tees Crossing - £450,000

A500 Dualling (Cheshire) - £2m

South Coventry Link Road - £1.25m