Representation by Heart of the South West Local Enterprise Partnership (Heart of the South West Local Enterprise Partnership)
- Date submitted
- 10 January 2019
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
The Heart of the South West Local Enterprise Partnership strongly supports the Department for Transport’s ongoing commitment to improving this vital strategic corridor between London and the South West. We welcome the progress to date on the A303 Stonehenge, and A303 Sparkford to Ilchester sections, and the A358 Ilminster to Taunton dualling.
Together with our partner LEPs and county authorities we are working in close liaison with Highways England to help deliver these important schemes and advance future work on the remaining unimproved sections of the A303 corridor.
Our region is coming from a low baseline for economic growth. Levels of productivity are among the lowest in the UK, (under 80% of the national average) with evidence that the gap between our area and the more prosperous areas of the UK is continuing to widen. Improving connectivity has been identified by all the LEPs, local authorities and MPs in the region as being the number one priority for improving our productivity and supporting the Government’s Industrial Strategy
In 2013 the partnership published our ‘A303/A358/A30 Corridor Improvement Economic Impact Study’, that demonstrated the scale of benefits that would accrue to the South West over a 60 year period as a result of a whole corridor upgrade, including:
• Wider economic impact of over £40bn
• 21,400 jobs
• £7.2bn employment related economic impacts
• £8.6bn per year increased visitor expenditure
• transport benefits of £1.9bn
• Improved transport resilience
The A303/A30 is one of the two main road routes from London to South West England; it is the trunk road corridor between London and Penzance and provides the most direct road link between the South West peninsula and London and the South East. Despite its strategic importance to the South West region, the route is of inconsistent standard, experiencing considerable congestion and road safety problems, and is seen as an extremely unreliable access point to the South West. As a result, an improvement to the A303/A358/A30 corridor has long been considered a priority.
The need for improvement along the corridor was recognised by Government in the Road Investment Strategy 2019/2020 (RIS1). This committed to spending £2bn on three major A303/A358/A30 dualling improvements at Amesbury to Berwick Down (Stonehenge), Sparkford to Ilchester and A358 Taunton to Ilminster. These schemes have continued to be developed over recent years and will require approval through the DCO process.
At the end of last year, we refreshed the 2013 study so that it provides a more up to date evidence base. The existing economic climate of the South West region has been considered alongside business survey data in order to monetise the predicted GVA outcomes of implementing an improvement, over a 60-year horizon.
The South West economy is under-performing compared to the rest of the UK and, without improvement, the performance of the corridor will deteriorate, further limiting growth and prosperity. Businesses view the A303/A358/A30 route as unreliable, with congestion, delays and accidents adding to the perception that the South West is difficult to get to. Productivity in the South West is below the national average, with those businesses along the M4/M5 corridor performing notably better than along the A303/A30/A358. Gross Value Added (GVA) per head along the M5 corridor exceeds not only other parts of the region, but also the UK average. In contrast, the areas served by the A303/A30/A358 all demonstrate GVAs lower than the national average, with productivity decreasing further west. In addition to this, wages are low along the corridor compared to the regional and national average, despite the skilled workforce relative to the UK average.
However, communities in the local authorities adjacent to the A303/ A30/ A358 corridor have continued to expand, with further growth planned in the future. The existing Local Plans for Wiltshire, North Dorset, South Somerset, Taunton Deane, East Devon and Exeter allocate approximately 100,000 additional new dwellings and 420ha of employment to be delivered by 2031. Some 40% of these new dwellings are within 5km of the A303/A30/A358 corridor. Their close proximity to the strategic link of the A303/A30 means the success of these developments is expected to be influenced by the future performance of the corridor.
Significant future growth is also planned for the wider South West, with large developments planned for the Greater Exeter area, Cornwall, Plymouth and Torbay. If all planned development comes forward, there will be a large resultant demand, and a high-quality transport network will be required to ensure the region’s population and economy can grow. It is vital that the A303/A30 does not act as a barrier to the planned growth in the South West.
As part of ongoing study, levels of delay as a result of incidents occurring on both the strategic routes to the South West – the M5 and A303/A30 corridors have been monitored. This analysis demonstrates that certain sections on both routes are subject to unreliable travel conditions. Most notably, the consistently worst performing section is on the A303/A30 between Amesbury and Berwick Down, (in the vicinity of Stonehenge).
The earlier assessment of wider economic benefit has been refreshed in this study using updated figures alongside 2012 business surveys results. This confirms that an improvement to the A303/A30/A358 corridor would result in GVA benefits to the whole region of almost £40 billion. Somerset and Devon stand to receive the highest GVA benefits of £10.6 billion and £9.8 billion respectively. The proposed RIS1 improvements, A303 Amesbury to Berwick Down, A303 Sparkford to Ilchester, and the A358 between Taunton and Ilminster will act as a catalyst to the whole route improvement. However, while the RIS1 improvements are worthy of building in their own right, the full economic benefit for the UK will only be achieved with a full end-to-end improvement along the A303/A358/A30 corridor. As such, a pipeline of schemes for the remaining unimproved sections will need to receive funding allocations in future RIS periods in order to ensure the proven need for a strategic second link to the South West are met. The Heart of the South West Local Enterprise Partnership strongly supports the improvement of the A303 between Amesbury and Berwick Down (Stonehenge).