Chancellor defends decision to axe A1 dualling project in Northumberland

The Chancellor confirmed in her first Budget that Labour was scrapping the plans to upgrade the single carriageway section of the A1 between Morpeth and Ellingham.

After decades of campaigning and repeated setbacks for the project, on which £67 million has already been spent in the planning stages and acquiring land, the Government has now deemed it ‘unfunded and unaffordable’.

That decision sparked a backlash, with accusations that Labour had “turned its back on the North East” by shelving a scheme aimed at improving safety and cutting congestion on one of the region’s most important highways.

On a visit to Newcastle on Friday, Ms Reeves defended the move and laid the blame with the former Conservative administrations that failed to deliver the A1 upgrade despite multiple pledges to do so during 14 years in power.

The Chancellor said: “I know that stretch of the A1 pretty well, with family up with Northumberland. But this is another example of the previous Government making commitments but putting no money aside. They wrote cheques that they knew they couldn’t cash and the A1 is a really good, or really bad, example of that.

“I have been an MP since 2010 and the number of times I heard the previous Government say they would deliver that scheme… now, here we are 14 years later and the previous Government put no money aside and we had to take tough decisions on Wednesday.

“When I became Chancellor there was a £22 billion black hole in the public finances. We couldn’t carry on like that.”

Northumberland County Council’s Conservative administration has vowed to push to get the scheme back up and running.

Dualling the A1 all the way up to the Scottish border is also a key ambition in the North East’s £8.7 billion vision to upgrade transport infrastructure by 2040.

Asked if the Government would consider supporting the A1 dualling if alternative funding could be found and a business case proven, Ms Reeves was unmoved.

The Chancellor said: “I don’t want to give people false hope. The money is not there for this project. I know that our new MP in North Northumberland, David Smith, wants to work with the DfT in ensuring the safety of that stretch of road and I know the transport secretary Lou Haigh will meet with David.

“But the truth is that the previous Government were making commitments knowing that the money was not there. I am not going to be a Chancellor like that, I am going to be honest about what we can and can’t do.”

Anne-Marie Trevelyan, the former Conservative transport secretary and Berwick MP, accused Labour of “treating the North East with contempt” after the A1 decision.

The Tories have been criticised for announcing just before the general election this year that the dualling would be given the go-ahead, after years of delays.