I appreciate the hon. Gentleman’s advocacy for his communities. However, I am afraid that communities like mine have missed out year after year after year. No matter who the Prime Minister of the previous Conservative Government was, they never put the infrastructure or the investment that was required into the north-east; finally we have a Government who are prioritising that, and I am afraid I am never going to argue against it.
Without the improvements to these roundabouts, Northumberland county council warns that they will remain a “significant constraint” on economic growth in south-east Northumberland, while North Tyneside council warns there is a “very real risk” that significant housing and economic growth, in line with national policy, cannot be delivered without investment into this critical highway infrastructure. There is also real risk that blocks placed by National Highways due to congestion affect the ability to produce a local plan and meet housing need across North Tyneside, with the Mayor of the North East adding:
“The lack of capacity is now constraining much needed plans for housing and economic development”.
South-east Northumberland is a key regional and national corridor for growth, including the Port of Blyth and Northumberland Energy Park, which will house the £10 billion data centre at Cambois. Businesses and local stakeholders have spoken to me ahead of the debate about their frustration and have provided real world examples.
Miller UK, which is headquartered in Cramlington, manufactures and supplies excavator buckets and attachments across the UK and the world. It has a significant number of trucks delivered on a daily basis, and it set out that
“Moor farm congestion impacts on delivery times and leads to increased running costs”.
Fergusons Transport is a logistics firm based in Dudley in North Tyneside, and it similarly expressed frustration at the delays, capacity and increased emissions. It added:
“This outdated infrastructure is holding our region back”.
George Smith produces exceptional upholstered furniture from its Cramlington factory, which is sold across the world. It has lost staff due to the frustrations of a commute involving Moor Farm, and said:
“A properly designed and delivered solution at Moor Farm would make a meaningful difference to our ability to attract and retain staff”.
Similarly, RENOLIT is a global family-owned specialist in high-quality plastic films and polymer solutions that is based in Cramlington. It also stressed the importance of delivering upgrades.
What is the cost of missed opportunities? There are the developments and investment that have not come forward, or are being held back, because of concerns that congestion at Moor Farm will lead to applications being blocked or that the mitigation costs are too high. Those missed opportunities are jobs and homes for local people that may be invested elsewhere, or indeed not at all.
I have said before that Moor Farm and Seaton Burn are holding back growth, investment and opportunity, so how can the Government support my region and community in getting those long-overdue upgrades? The Department for Transport and National Highways assessed the business case for the roundabouts in the latest road investment strategy pipeline. Under the previous Conservative Government’s Green Book criteria, they were found to be low or poor value for money. However, this assessment has been challenged by local councils and the North East combined authority, which highlighted that the assessment used traffic data from 2019.
As I said earlier, the Department for Transport’s own figures show that there have been significant increases in delays in recent years, yet that data was not used for the assessment, and the assessment also did not take into account all the housing developments in the pipeline. We are in a Catch-22 situation where only some future developments, whether employment or housing, are being assessed, yet there are business and development opportunities on key sites in Northumberland and North Tyneside that are not being brought forward due to the lack of certainty about whether they will be blocked or incur additional costs due to the roundabouts’ capacity constraints.
We know that assessments of the outcomes of investments in the north-east have significantly undervalued the impact before. Take the recent reopening of the Northumberland line in December 2024. Initially, usage was expected to be 50,000 by Easter 2025, yet with only some of the stations open to date, including Seaton Delaval in my constituency, figures show that 250,000 journeys have been made—five times the expected number of passenger journeys. Investment in infrastructure delivers results, and I have no doubt that with Moor Farm and Seaton Burn we would, similarly, see substantially more benefits delivered than the assessment implies.
That is precisely why the Government’s review and changes to the Green Book are so vital. A move to a place-based business case is absolutely correct, and for Moor Farm and Seaton Burn, it cannot come soon enough. From Conservative-led Northumberland to the Labour Mayor of North Tyneside, Karen Clark, and the North East Mayor, Kim McGuinness, and local Labour MPs, we are universally agreed: to unlock growth, support business and finally end the misery for local residents in south-east Northumberland, north Tyneside and the wider north-east, these upgrades are essential.
The Government are right to place these decisions in the hands of those who know our communities best, and what delivers for them. I have previously asked, as has the North East combined authority, for this scheme to be judged as a test case for a new methodology for the Green Book. With the changes to the Green Book and the welcome move to place-based business cases, could the A19 north of Newcastle scheme be the test case for new methodology? With the growth that would be unlocked by bringing the scheme forward, overlooked in the previous methodology, will the Department for Transport work with local stakeholders to test this?
Our Government have rightly embraced devolution. Given the importance placed on these junctions to local stakeholders, and the fact that this was specifically referenced in both the deeper devolution deal and the north-east growth plan, what weight is placed on this in the road investment strategy assessment? What conversations have taken place between the Department for Transport and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, given that local plan and housing targets could be at risk if this barrier is not removed? Now that the spending review has been announced, what is the timeframe for a decision on the next round of road investment strategy and the projects identified to go forward? Finally, despite the misinformation put out by Conservative councillors in Northumberland, can the Minister confirm that, under the previous Government, no funding had been awarded for improvements at the roundabouts, and no money for this project has been withdrawn?
The Government have ambitious missions to deliver growth and build the houses that our country needs. Cramlington and Killingworth, and the wider north-east, stand ready to support delivery, but right now the situation at Moor Farm and Seaton Burn acts as a blocker to growth, causing misery to residents and commuters and holding back investment. The voices of local people, business, councils and elected representatives is clear: we need these key junctions to be upgraded. They are holding back the enormous potential of the communities that I represent. Investing here and upgrading the roundabouts can help to deliver our missions, and I hope that this critical investment will be brought forward. I look forward to hearing from the Minister on how we can work together to achieve that.