Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 5 November 2018 to Question 185590 on A303 and Lower Thames Crossing: Private Finance Initiative, whether private finance will be used for the upgrade of the A303 and the Lower Thames Crossing.

The government is committed to increasing private investment in infrastructure through a range of models. The 2017 National Infrastructure and Construction Pipeline estimates that almost half of the UK’s £600 billion infrastructure pipeline is expected to be financed by the private sector.

The Budget announced that the government will no longer use Private Finance 2 (the successor to the Private Finance Initiative) for new projects, as the model was inflexible and overly complex. Private finance will not be used for the upgrade of the A303 and the Lower Thames Crossing.