§ Captain Pluggeasked the Minister of Transport whether he can state the estimated amount to be spent on major road works and by-passes during the current year; what proportion of this amount can now be saved by cancelling and postponing non-urgent schemes; and which of the schemes in particular already arranged are to be cancelled or postponed?
§ Captain WallaceThe amount estimated to be spent on major road works and bypasses during the current year was about £ 14,000,000. No road works will now be carried out unless they can be shown to be essential to meet national needs in existing circumstances. A review of the whole programme is at present being undertaken in order to ascertain this information, and, while I am not yet in a position to give actual figures, it can confidently be anticipated that the expenditure on road works for the remainder of this year will be very substantially less than that which would have been incurred under normal circumstances.