Taxpayers have spent £87.5 million on the A46 Newark bypass, a road Labour approved, put in its own roads plan and then lined up for cancellation within a year.
Five months after ministers proposed scrapping the scheme to help pay for defence, they have still not decided its fate, even as National Highways sounds out builders for a new contract estimated at £700 million.
The figure was disclosed by transport minister Lord Hendy in a written answer to Conservative peer Lord Moylan, published on Wednesday.
As of September, National Highways had spent £4.5 million on options, £72.4 million on development, including design, consenting and procurement, £3.1 million on land and £7.5 million on “advanced construction and preparatory works”.
The scheme would turn about 6.5km of single carriageway between the Farndon and Winthorpe roundabouts into dual carriageway, with a flyover at the Cattle Market roundabout and a new bridge over the A1. The A46 links the M1 at Leicester with the A1 and Lincolnshire, and the Newark stretch is a well-known bottleneck for lorries and commuters alike.
The road has been promised for years, and plans for it were drawn up under the last Conservative government. Progress was slow. But Labour now owns every decision on it.
In October 2025 the Transport Secretary granted development consent. In March this year the Department for Transport’s £27 billion Road Investment Strategy listed the Newark bypass among the schemes to be developed over the next five years.
Three months later it was on the chopping block. The funding explainer for the Defence Investment Plan, published on 30 June, said the department would find savings of up to £700 million from roads and would consult on “the potential cancellation of the A38 Derby Junctions and A46 Newark Bypass schemes, both of which are yet to enter contract”. They were the only two road schemes in England named.
Since then, the Government has confirmed that the existing arrangement with the contractor Skanska will not proceed to the main construction works. In September National Highways began sounding out the market for a new design and build contract, estimated at £700 million before VAT, or £840 million with it, running from December 2028 to December 2038. Its notice said no decision had been made.
That same month, Andy Burnham told the BBC that “a lot of work has been going on to see what’s possible and further announcements will be made in due course”. On 2 November the Labour mayor of the East Midlands, Claire Ward, said a decision was expected “soon”. There was no mention of it in last month’s Budget speech.
There is a fair case for putting defence first when money is tight, and this is not a scheme with an overwhelming return. Nottinghamshire County Council’s response to the consultation, which opposes cancellation, puts its benefits at about £1.20 for every £1 spent.
But the £87.5 million already spent will not come back if the road is scrapped. The council says the uncertainty also hangs over plans for more than 14,000 new homes across Newark and Sherwood over the next 20 years, at a time when ministers have promised to build 1.5 million homes.
Nor is it clear why a fresh contract is being priced before ministers have decided whether the road will be built at all, or what it cost to unwind the work already lined up with Skanska.
The questions for the Government are simple. How much of the £87.5 million would be written off if the bypass is cancelled? What is the cost of the delay itself? And when will ministers tell Newark whether its road is going ahead?
In the space of a year, Labour has approved the bypass, listed it, proposed scrapping it and started pricing it again. The A46 at Newark is still a single carriageway.
