Localist funding initiatives can pave the way for faster and cheaper ways of delivering the economic benefits of vital infrastructure, says Paul Carter

Kent boasts Britain’s largest quantity of high-quality, affordable development land, all of which benefits from excellent connectivity and access to stunning countryside and coast.

In the Thames Gateway project, the delivery of 53,000 new homes and 58,000 jobs forms part of Europe’s largest regeneration programme, while the ‘growth area’ of Ashford and the ‘growth points’ at Dover and Maidstone hold out excellent prospects for private-sector jobs expansion.

If the county is to accommodate this growth, its transport network must have sufficient capacity and resilience for efficient and reliable journeys. However, the county’s highway network is overloaded at critical points, and particularly vulnerable to problems at the Dartford Crossing and the Channel ports.

Kent also has significant areas of social disadvantage concentrated within those seaside towns in East Kent, and transport has a key role to play in helping to transform the fortunes of these communities.

Together with local businesses and stakeholders, the county council has, therefore, developed Growth without gridlock, a plan of action for funding and delivering improvements to the county’s strategic infrastructure.

We recognise that the days of government financing large public projects may be long gone, and we have drawn up a raft of innovative funding mechanisms, such as tax increment financing (TIF), banning lorry ‘belly tanks’, and a port landing charge – to help minimise the cost to the public purse (see table 1).

We want to get the most out of the coalition government’s localist approach to economic growth, and to demonstrate that by putting business and local government in charge – through the Kent, Medway, Greater Essex and East Sussex Local Enterprise Partnership – can deliver swift and practical results. Dartford Crossing carries some 18,000 HGVs each day, and offers the shortest freight route between Kent’s ports and the major distribution centres in the Midlands and the north of England.

Yet, the capacity of the existing bridge and tunnels is overloaded, and the crossing experiences, on average, 15 major incidents a year which require the closure of carriageways, together with closures of the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge due to high winds. The wider impacts on the highway networks of Kent and Essex are extensive, costing the UK economy some £40m a year.

The case for a new Thames crossing, between Chadwell in Essex and east of Gravesend, linking the M25 with the A2/M2, is overwhelming. Research we commissioned shows that the economic benefits would be eight times greater than providing an additional bridge or tunnel at Dartford.

Studies reveal that a third crossing in our preferred location would create around 6,000 jobs in north Kent and south Essex, and contribute £334m a year to the local economy. The cost of building a tunnel at this site – as opposed to a bridge, which would have to take account of shipping, and would have a greater environmental impact – are estimated at around £1bn.

The new Thames Crossing is part of a wider package of schemes which must be delivered if we are to reap the maximum growth and productivity benefits. Kent, and specifically Dover, can be regarded as the UK’s front door.

It is the largest passenger ferry port in northern Europe and the country’s leading roll-on roll-off terminal for HGV traffic, with 2.29 million vehicles passing through in 2009 alone.

The number of freight vehicles which pass through the port could almost double over the next 20 years, according to Dover Harbour Board forecasts, and this will place a tremendous burden on our road network.

One of the most important schemes we have on our ‘must-do’ list is the bifurcation – division – of traffic travelling to and from Dover.

This would be made possible by the provision of a new Thames crossing and the upgrading of several stretches of the A2 in East Kent.

For anyone living or working around the southern M20 corridor, one of biggest problems of Kent’s gateway role is the disruption caused by ‘Operation stack’, when crossing the Channel is threatened by inclement weather or industrial action in France.

The management of Operation stack already costs Kent Police and the Highways Agency some £3m a year. It costs the UK haulage industry £1m a day, and reduces the attractiveness of East Kent as a place to do business. And, with rising freight and passenger volumes, it is likely that problems will become more frequent.

Kent CC is determined to avoid this and has identified a site for a lorry park between junctions 10 and 11 on the M20 which would provide 500 secure parking spaces and an additional 2,500 overflow spaces for use during Operation stack, taking the tailback of lorries off the motorway and easing delays to local traffic.

The Government’s localist approach would also enable us to tackle one of the major headaches for drivers in West Kent, and open up possibilities to increase growth along the A21. Dualling of this trunk road between Tonbridge and Pembury has long been a goal and the Highways Agency estimate for this scheme is £120m.

Devolving the agency’s powers and responsibilities to local transport authorities would provide faster and cheaper ways of delivering vital road infrastructure.

We believe the A21 scheme can be delivered for less than half its current cost, at around £45m, through local project management and procurement.

We have a proven track record for project delivery and the Government has agreed to work with us to investigate the benefits of this approach. This, together with dualling of the Kippings Cross to Lamberhurst section, will support business growth, regeneration and access to services in the A21 corridor through to Hastings.

Thanet is one of England’s most disadvantaged districts, with high unemployment rates, and a total welfare bill of £180m a year. The area is overly dependent on public sector and seasonal employment, and has not benefited fully from the launch of high-speed rail services to London.

Kent International Airport (KIA) at Manston has the potential to develop into a significant regional airport, and developing a parkway station close to Manston would greatly improve the viability of the airport. The proposed expansion is forecast to create 6,000 jobs by 2033, which will be complemented by new employment opportunities arising from the growth of the Manston and Eurokent Business Parks.

In our Growth without gridlock document, we have set out a 20-year funding plan, which estimates our capital costs for key transport infrastructure and priorities to deliver growth at £1.77bn (see table

2).  Spread over 25 years, the annual revenue cost – including interest and repayment – is £154m million a year. This is more than covered by the proposed new revenues streams that would bring in £615 a year.

The schemes form a collective package which, if delivered in its totality, will deliver benefits on a scale far greater than the sum of its parts. Kent CC fully supports the Government’s view that the definition of local investment priorities should be in the hands of local government, working side-by-side with business and communities, and we are ready to take our delivery plan forward as an early pilot of this approach.

Growth without gridlock highlights schemes that we feel can be delivered by creative and innovative means. We need cheaper and faster ways to deliver strategic infrastructure and we propose the transfer of Highways Agency budgets and powers to local transport to remove the existing duplication of maintenance functions, and to enable local government and business to take more strategic decisions about sub-regional priorities.

We also need the Government to play its part. Given the national strategic importance of the proposed Lower Thames Crossing, we ask the Government to act swiftly on its commitment to conduct a detailed feasibility study of the principal crossing options.

We have also asked the Government to hold firm on its pledge, in the National Infrastructure Plan, to bring forward a scheme of foreign lorry road-user charging. Revenue must be used to fund a long-term solution to Operation stack as well as the other vital schemes.

Kent CC has exciting and realistic plans for the future. With our excellent track record of working with the Government and business to bring forward strategic infrastructure schemes – the first Dartford tunnel was built in partnership by Kent and Essex county councils – we have a clear strategic base on which to proceed.

The country is at a crossroads, and we need to get on and deliver these improvements.

Paul Carter is leader of Kent CC, and chairman of South East England Councils