Extra £174m earmarked for Lower Thames Crossing
Ministers have allocated an extra £174 million to the Lower Thames Crossing, taking the project's estimated cost above £3 billion. The scheme is a planned road tunnel linking Kent and Essex, and its projected cost per mile now outstrips HS2. The chancellor had presented a "final tranche" of public funding at the autumn budget, yet the Department for Transport has committed further taxpayer money. Campaigners note the outline business case remains unpublished and say the extra cash raises urgent questions about value for money and whether cheaper alternatives should be considered.
The magic money tree gets another shake. Funny how often it fruits when lucrative contracts are at risk. 🧵 www.theguardian.com/business/202...
George Monbiot141This is not the first extra sweetener the government has given the project. The money it is spending on this short stretch of road could instead be used to transform the entire national transport system for the better, as the figures here show: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Climate News16What is rather upsetting about this is that the money should be urgently invested in flood defences for the Thames. But atmospheric rivers dumping 700mm of rain in 24 hours on the Thames catchment area within the next 5 years is highly likely. The Thames barrier will only worsen a crisis.
Neil B10It amazing how often it fruits in the London and home counties area!
Aphex Gwyn9Still, it's good to see the south-east of England getting some money spent on transport infrastructure. That part of the UK has been really starved of investment over the last few decades...
Tocoso8When its money earmarked to go straight to big business suddenly the markets arent 'spooked' by public spending, invest in poverty reduction and they go ballistic!
Boiled Like Frogs6The southern magic money tree! There's never a magic money tree for northern projects. All the one's that are really necessary get binned! HS2 to Leeds binned! HS2 to Manchester binned! Transport system for Leeds binned, binned and binned again!
wonkyjonty.bsky.social6The last successful major infrastructure project in this country was probably the construction of Offa’s Dyke. We need to review their project planning documents.
Peter Timson4The way infrastructure projects are run suggests investigation by the Fraud Squad may be appropriate. Clearly initial estimates are just softeners to get the project going. It's not all contingency for sure. Poor management and mission creep too I dare say.
MarvinPA33 billion from government, then another 7 billion from the private sector? Then a bottomless pit of cost overruns.. And they wonder why the North gets pissed off. You can’t avoid sunk costs by not syncing them in the first place. FKNL!
Lerrup3And even then, it's going to be run by a private firm in perpetuity with a regulator, which works so well in all other spheres of public life
Ben2Because the ‘magic money tree’ is simply just the government crediting departmental accounts as and when it needs to… because it can
KeithBrindle2Amy amount of money for London and the south. I'd just like a regular reliable train service between Leeds and Manchester. And don't get me started on the monumental farce of a financial and unnecessary disaster that is HS2.
LillyLyle/Count Melancholia2@georgemonbiot.bsky.social There's always money for projects in the south of England, never for projects in Scotland.
£3bn from the British gov for yet another tunnel under the Thames? That's the same as the 𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘳𝘦 infrastructure budget that Scotland was allowed in 2025. Our Government can't create money for investment like Westminster can. We need independence for that. www.theguardian.com/business/202...
Andrew Quinn🏳️🌈🏴🇬🇧🏴🇵🇸🤘🏻😸2It's ALMOST like the government are deliberately mismanaging unthinkable amounts of 'other people's money' so their mates with private companies make enormous profit (and continue to give them backhanders they don't even need because of their MP wage + benefits) www.independent.co.uk/bulletin/new...
Pat Traynor2Scotland's "contribution" to crossrail, HS2, Thames tunnels, Hinckley Point, saving English refineries and steelwork, and many others would easily cover our much-needed infrastructure projects such as A9 & A96 dualling and even island tunnels. Let's go. LET US GO!
Expected to be more expensive per mile than #hs2 but it's a motorway in the south east so Labour are throwing money at it like it doesn't matter. www.theguardian.com/business/202...
Transport Action Network3The responsible thing would be for the government to pause work on the Lower Thames Crossing, complete the final business case, and consider whether public money could be better spent (alternatives to a ‘smart’ motorway do exist). transportactionnetwork.org.uk/is-the-lower...
Cllr Owen Burbidge 🔶2Imagine what transport in the North East would be like with that kind of money thrown at it. 😔 When a project overruns here, we have to scrabble around for scraps. Like the Tyne Bridge repairs. Having apply for funding for that from Levelling Up funding
