£45.5m savings give boost to transport improvements

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Transport Secretary Philip Hammond has announced the go-ahead for 9 local transport schemes after savings of 14% were identified.

The savings mean additional schemes across the country can now be brought forward for consideration. A further 23 schemes have been given the green light to bid for funding from a sum worth around £630m. These schemes have provisionally identified overall savings of 42%.

Philip Hammond said, “The Government is committed to delivering transport projects which improve journeys while also helping economic growth.”

“Following the spending review we challenged local authorities to look again at the cost of proposed schemes to ensure we get maximum value for every pound we spend. The councils being awarded funding have met that challenge by achieving a saving to the taxpayer if £45.5m on the original proposed costs.”

“That means more money is now available for other schemes across the country and I would urge other councils to follow this lead as they bid for funding. This will allow us to fund as many schemes as possible, delivering improvements to roads and public transport across the country.”

The Department for Transport announced in October that it was seeking best and final offers from local authorities found overall cost savings of 14%. The schemes are worth over £365m with an overall DfT contribution of £275m.

Rail projects include:

  • Leeds Station Southern Access: Improving pedestrian access to Leeds station. £12.4m DfT contribution towards a total cost of £14.4m.
  • Midland Metro Extension: Extending Midland Metro tram line through Birmingham City Centre. £75.4m DfT contribution towards a total cost of £129.2m.

The Department announced in October that all other local transport schemes for which it had received funding bids had been assigned to one of two ‘pools’.

Schemes in the development pool were told that they would be invited to bid for funding later in 2011. Schemes in the ‘pre-qualification pool’ have been subject to further assessment to determine which of them can enter the development pool.

This work has now been completed and the Department today announced that 23 schemes will move into the development pool after the local authorities indicated an overall 42% saving can be found. Nine schemes from the pre-qualification group and two schemes which have been withdrawn by the promoter have not been moved to the development pool and are no longer being considered for funding in this spending review period.

The Department hopes to fund the majority of the schemes now in the development pool subject to their business cases being of an acceptable standard. However, the total likely funding request to DfT is nearly £950m, so the process remains competitive and local authorities will need to look for further savings to stand a good chance of funding.

Decisions on these schemes will be made by the end of 2011.

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