§ Mr. Fryasked the Minister of Transport if he will list in the Official Report his Department's pre-tender estimates of the prices for each trunk road contract 561W let in 1978, together with the actual price of the accepted tender.
Scheme Pre-tender estimate Accepted tender £m. £m. A1 Felton bypass, stage 2B … … … … 2 1.4 A1 Grade separated junction at Darrington … … 1.4 1.5 A3 Burpham-Ladymead diversion … … … 11.0 10.6 A40 Gloucester Northern bypass, advance earthworks … 1.6 1.3 A259 Bexhill Old Town bypass … … … … 1.8 1.4 A406 Hanger Lane-Western Avenue junction … … 3.1 3.1 A428 Little Houghton bypass … … … … 1.7 1.0 A629 Skipton bypasses-advance drainage works … 0.6 0.8 M5 Widening Lydiate Ash-Quinton … … … 4.3 3.6 M20 Ashford-Sellindge … … … … … 17.9 14.9 M20 Sellindge-Folkestone … … … … … 15.2 13.8 M25 Thorpe-Chertsey … … … … … 8.8 7.6 M25 A13-A12 stage 1 … … … … … 11.5 11.0 M25 Chertsey-Wisley advance bridges—related road works … … … … … … 1.4 1.1 M56 Hapsford-Stoak … … … … … 6.6 5.4 M56 Stoak Interchange … … … … … 6.6 4.8 M56 Stoak-Powey Lane … … … … … 4.7 4.3 M58 Aintree-Skelmersdale … … … … … 29.3 9.7 21.8 Bickerstaffe section … … … … Melling section … … … … 12.1 M67 Denton relief road stage 1 … … … … 10.3 10.1 NOTE: The pre-tender estimates listed above correspond in coverage to the tender they exclude contingency allowances (land) and ancillary items included in estimates of total cost.
§ Mr. Fryasked the Minister of Transport if he will list in the Official Report all motorway and trunk road schemes with a total cost of between £1 million and £10 million in the same format as the appendix on page VI-23 of the Supply Estimates 1979–80.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeThe total provision for schemes costing between £1 million and £10 million also covers expenditure on motorway communications, service areas, noise barriers and some other miscellaneous items. The estimates for individual schemes are those current at the time, and cover their total cost, including land and a contingency allowance. I have arranged for copies to be placed in the Library.
§ Mr. Fryasked the Minister for Transport what factors have led to the reduction from the figure of £508.3 million for spending on the motorway and trunk road programmes estimated in Cmnd. 7439 to the figure of £487.2 million given in the supply estimates, all figures at 1978 survey
562W
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeThe information required is as follows:
prices as given in columns 7 and 8 of page VI-x of the Supply Estimates 1979–80; and if this reduction indicates that further underspending of the motorway and trunk road budget is anticipated in the current financial year.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeI shall answer for England, where the apparent reduction in spending provision for the programme is £17 million. However, this includes £10 million attributable to a technical adjustment relating to the price base, which does not represent a cut in the volume of expenditure. There will be a further reduction of about £8 million resulting from the cuts in public expenditure announced by my right hon. and learned Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer on 12 June 1979. We have no reason, at this stage, to expect that expenditure this year will be below provision for reasons other than these.