Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the benefit to cost ratio of the Oxford to Cambridge expressway road is; and whether that ratio is comparable with other transport proposals under review.

The Government published a strategic outline business case for the construction of the ‘missing link’ between Oxford and Milton Keynes in September 2018 (available on the Department for Transport website). This showed a benefit cost ratio of 1.2 or 1.3 for the preferred corridor B.

Highways England is in the process of identifying potential routes within the preferred corridor which will enable a more thorough assessment of benefits and costs. At the current stage of work the estimated benefit cost ratio is not unusual.