The Government suspects the true cost of a package of road schemes recommended by the southeast Manchester multi-modal study is much higher than the ‘extremely expensive’ £550M estimate.
Local transport minister, Gillian Merron, told MPs the £550M price- tag assumed that construction inflation was running at 2.5% a year, when ‘it has risen significantly more quickly’. The Department for Transport is awaiting a revised estimate from Stockport council for the three schemes to relieve the A555.
The DfT would not provide the £860M in private-finance initiative credits the council estimated were needed.
‘PFI is approved only when it represents better value for money than conventional funding,’ she stressed.
Small Scale, Big Potential: Town and parish councils and devolution
Parish and town councils could play a central role in making devolution work for communities.
