A27 Arundel bypass scheme scrapped

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has confirmed the scheme will not go ahead after cancelling a £150million investment fund announced by the previous government.

The chancellor said ‘not a single project’ had been supported by the fund and it was being scrapped because ‘if we cannot afford it, we cannot do it’.

The A303 Stonehenge tunnel and Restoring Our Railways scheme are other casualties, with the government saying cancelling the latter would save £85million.

The cancellation of the Arundel bypass project was widely expected, with Labour having announced its plans before the July 4 general election.

In June, a spokesperson for the party described the scheme as offering ‘poor value for money’ and said the funding would instead be used to repair the country’s pothole-ridden roads.

But now it appears to have become part of a programme of savings after the Labour Party said it had inherited a projected overspend of £22billion from the Conservatives.

Conservative MP Andrew Griffith, who retained his Arundel & South Downs seat in the general election, reacted to the news with anger.

He said the bypass had been an ongoing project for National Highways – which is responsible for Englands motorways and trunk roads – following years of consultation work, and that while it had been delayed for a year ‘for further imporant surveys’ it had always been fully costed and had an anticipated start date of next year.

Mr Griffith said: “I have previously warned that rural communities will pay the price for Labour’s ‘command and control’ approach to planning. Now we see them attacking the local communities by cancelling the much-needed dualling of the A27 at Arundel whilst offering no funding or ideas for alternatives.

“Residents of West Sussex are getting the worst of all worlds, continued congestion, rat running and pollution on our roads, whilst taxes go up and the money is diverted elsewhere.”

Other announcements by the chancellor on Monday included the introduction of VAT on private school fees from January, the winter fuel payment to pensions becoming means-tested and pay rises for teachers and NHS workers being put forward.