Halt all new trunk road and motorway building
Halting investment in major road building would reduce reliance on car travel and send a clear message about the future of transport.
Scotland spends around £800 million on motorways and trunk roads each year. This is expensive, high-carbon infrastructure, inconsistent with the climate crisis we face. The 2024-5 Programme for Government committed to continue to dual the A9 and to acquire land for the dualling of the A96.
Capital expenditure must be switched toward low-carbon infrastructure, including projects that enable walking, cycling and public transport, and encourage modal shift, if Scotland is to deliver an effective climate emergency response.
Since 2005/06 spending on roads has doubled, whereas funding for trains and buses has remained static or even fallen. The active travel budget has been increased since then but remains low in percentage terms, and is often at risk of being cut during difficult financial times, as seen in the draft 2025/26 budget.
The Welsh Government decided in 2023 to end new road building except in exceptional cases. There may be a case for limited local road building for access or genuine safety reasons, or for improvements for public transport or cycling, but the Scottish Government and local authorities should deprioritise additions to the road network. There is also a maintenance backlog of £1.2bn on trunk roads and £1.7bn on local authority roads that will require increased investment.
This approach has been supported by the Scottish Government’s own Infrastructure Commission, which called for investment to be used to deliver a “substantial increase in the proportion of journeys made by active travel” and “a much greater role for public transport.”
In their 2023 progress report the Climate Change Committee (CCC) called on the UK Government to “conduct a systematic review of current and future road-building projects to assess their consistency with the Government’s environmental goals. This should ensure that decisions do not lock in unsustainable levels of traffic growth and develop conditions that permit schemes to be taken forward only if they meaningfully support cost-effective delivery of Net Zero and climate adaptation.” The Committee’s chair had summarised their position thus “‘The government should halt all new roads unless there are exceptional circumstances … New roads inevitably increase traffic and emissions.’
The UK Labour Government have promised to “maintain and renew our road network” – careful wording which neither rules out nor promises new road building – and have already cancelled one bypass project to fund pothole repairs in England. The proposed Stonehenge tunnel has been scrapped and other road schemes are to be reviewed, potentially delivering on the recommendation from the CCC.
In Scotland this policy would result in savings of hundreds of millions, which would then be available for expenditure on other low-carbon policies. It would also result in benefits and opportunities in associated public policy areas, including:
- air quality improvements
- improvements in sustainable travel alternatives
- reduced land take for new road construction
- reduction in long-term conditions associated with poor air quality and/or sedentary activity, meaning cost savings for the NHS
For further information:
Roads to ruin, Transform, August 2021 https://transform.scot/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Roads-to-Ruin-Transform-Scotland-2021-08-10.pdf
Road to nowhere? Calls for Scottish Government to follow Welsh lead and scrap new road building, Courier, 2021, https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/business-environment/transport/2333608/road-to-nowhere-calls-for-scottish-government-to-follow-welsh-lead-and-scrap-new-road-building/
Why the Scottish government must invest in active travel for the health and happiness of the country, Cycling UK, September 2024, https://www.cyclinguk.org/blog/why-scottish-government-must-invest-active-travel-health-and-happiness-country
