§ Mr. Muddasked the Secretary of State for Transport what are the reasons for the shortfall between the estimated outturn for motorway and trunk road new construction and improvement in 1981–82 and the voted figure of £539 million; if he will attribute, as far as possible, the actual contributions to the shortfall arising from (a) misestimated prices, (b) slippage, (c) misestimated scheme preparation costs and (d) claims, and so on; what steps are being taken to avoid repetition of the shortfall; and whether some form of carry forward facility for unspent road funds is being considered.
§ Mrs ChalkerThe estimated outturn for 1981–82 is about £85 million, less than the provision shown against subheads A1 and A2 in the published Supply Estimates. This has been partly offset by the transfer during the year of £21 million to maintenance.
The main reason for the shortfall were:—
- (i) a substantially lower rate of inflation in the construction sector than anticipated, including an actual fall in tender prices, accounting for about half the shortfall;
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New construction and improvements, motorways and trunk roads 1982–83 Details of schemes, costing between £1—£10 million. Schemes with a total cost between £1–£10 million (Contracts let after 31 October 1981) Year of authorisation to year of completion (estimated) Probable expenditure to 31 March 1982 at outturn prices Estimate provision for 1982–83 Estimated expenditure after 31 March 1983 at 1982–83 prices £'000 £'000 £'000 Manchester Outer Ring Road Stretford-Eccles Improvement Stage 1 (Greater Manchester) (l.6Km) 1982–84 — 642 1,411 Stretford-Eccles Improvement Stage 2 (Greater Manchester) (6.4Km) 1983–85 — 358 4,373 London-Norwich Road Attleborough Bypass (Norfolk) (9.0Km) 1982–85 — 507 5,552 London-Great Yarmouth Road Gallows Corner (Greater London) (7.1 Km) 1982–84 570 2,188 1,878 Copdock-Washbrook Bypass (Suffolk) (5.9Km) 1982–84 9 2,650 5,685 Kings Lynn-Sleaford-Newark Road Heckington Bypass (Lincolnshire) (4.5Km) 1982–83 600 3,510 1,030 London-Edinburgh-Thurso Road Alnwick Bypass (Northumberland) (5.3Km) 1982–84 2 335 3,248 Catterick Northern and Southern Junction Improvements (North Yorkshire) (2.7Km) 1981–83 433 2,798 610 Folkestone-Honiton Road Langstone Flyover (Hampshire) (3.2Km) 1983–85 — 14 1,985 Honiton Link-A30 (Devon) (3.4Km) 1983–85 — 71 2,201 London-Penzance Road Andover-Thruxton (Hampshire) (12.lKm) 1982–84 14 443 7,570 Winchester-Preston Road Whitway Diversion (Hampshire) (5.9Km) 1983–85 — 131 3,749 Exeter-Leeds Road Alrewas Grade Separated Junction (Staffordshire) (5.5Km) 1982–84 — 491 3,225 London-Fishguard Road Northleach Bypass (Gloucestershire) (4.2Km) 1982–84 — 722 1,851 Perivale Lane Grade Separated Junction (Greater London) (l.3Km) 1981–84 447 3,361 5,707 East of Birmingham-Birkenhead Road Hinstock Bypass (Shropshire) (l.6Km) 1982–84 — 167 1,053 Oxford-Market Deeping Road Broughton Diversion (Northamptonshire) (3.1 Km) 1982–84 2 551 1,535 Felixstowe-Weedon Road Levington Heath Improvement (Suffolk) (3.1 Km) 1982–83 — 2,533 — Birmingham-Great Yarmouth Road Wisbech/West Walton Bypass (Cambridgeshire) (8.4Km) 1982–84 — 515 5,057
- (ii)the transfer of preparation and supervision work from the former RCU sub-units to consultants taking longer than planned, which largely accounted for the underspend—amounting to just under a quarter of the total—which fell under subhead A2.
- (iii) lower than expected land prices and smaller payments on contractors claims, each accounting for about 10 per cent.
While some schemes slipped during the year, this was largely offset by bringing forward schemes from the reserve list and from the next year's programme.
For the future, we have added additional schemes to the active programme and both the main and reserve lists for the current two-year period are substantially larger, both in value and number of schemes, than were those for 1980 and 1981. The possibility of introducing a facility for carrying forward unspent funds is under review.
§ Mr. Muddasked the Secretary of State for Transport if he will list in the Official Report, in the same format as the Supply Estimates 1982–83, all motorway and trunk road schemes with a cost between £1 million and £10 million due to start after 31 October 1981 and which will fall on his Department's Vote.
§ Mrs. ChalkerThe information is attached. The total provision for schemes costing between £1 million and £10 million including land acquisition, also covers expenditure on motorway communications and other miscellaneous items and is partly offset by the allowance at the end of table 1 of the appendix for work which may not in practice be carried out in the year.
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Schemes with a total cost between £1–£10 million (Contracts let after 31 October 1981) Year of authorisation to year of completion (estimated) Probable expenditure to 31 March 1982 at outturn prices Estimate provision for 1982–83 Estimated expenditure after 31 March 1983 at 1982–83 prices £'000 £'000 £'000 Newport-Shrewsbury Road Tarvin South Western Bypass (Cheshire) (2.6Km) 1982–84 — 368 1,363 Nottingham-Derby-Stoke Road A614/A52 Junction Improvement (Nottinghamshire) (4.7Km) 1982–84 75 1,047 1,617 Liverpool-Sheffield-Skegness Road Aston Relief Road (South Yorkshire) (7.4Km) 1983–85 — 323 4,659 Levens Bridge-Carlisle Road Levens Bridge Diversion (Cumbria) (5.3Km) 1982–84 72 2,189 2,253 Liverpool-Leeds Road Otley Bypass (West Yorkshire) (7.4Km) 1982–84 28 441 3.375 Carlisle-Sunderland Road Greenhead Diversion (Northumberland) (2.1Km) 1983–85 — 17 1,394 Bardon Mill Bypass (Northumberland) (l.6Km) 1982–84 — 534 537