The UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sajid Javid, has announced a major investment in a bid to upgrade many major and minor roads across the country.
The news came in Javid’s speech at the Conservative Party Conference where he referenced enlarging sections of the Trans-Pennine expressway, the A66 and also adding a new 10-mile section of the A428 between Cambridge and Milton Keynes.
The Chancellor has promised a total of £29 billion, an expansion of the £25 billion which was part of the Road Investment Strategy (RIS2), which was initially announced by Javid’s predecessor, Philip Hammond.
“Our roads are the arteries of our country,” Javid said at the conference in Manchester.
“We will soon launch the new Roads Investment Strategy…with £29 billion committed for strategic and local roads over the next five years.
And today we are getting the shovels out early on several important road projects…
including upgrading the nearby M60 Simister Island… dualling the A66 Transpennine,
and starting work on the A428 between Cambridge and Milton Keynes.”
Javid also announced that he is making a major financial commitment to improving the UK’s network of buses, as part of a ‘national bus strategy.
“They haven’t been given the attention they deserve from politicians…but they are still the backbone of our public transport in most of the country. Well, not only do you have a Chancellor with a well-known family connection to buses, but a PM who likes to paint them!
“At the Spending Round we allocated £220 million to buses alone. This will form part of a National Bus Strategy next year. Rolling out new ‘superbus’ networks…expanding our fleet of low emission buses…and delivering better value for money for passengers.”