Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department has made a recent assessment of the viability of alternative schemes to the Highways PFI contract for Birmingham.

The Department has assessed the viability of a range of alternative schemes to the Birmingham PFI contract. Following this, we have committed to continue Birmingham’s existing funding at approximately £50m for 2024/5. In subsequent years, Birmingham would be allocated formula funding in the same way as other local highways authorities across the country, as part of the highways maintenance block grant. This will be paid via the West Midlands Combined Authority in the usual way.

The Department will increase the additional funding going to the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) under the Network North Roads Resurfacing fund to take account of the fact that the allocations announced in November 2023 did not include an amount for Birmingham. WMCA is also benefiting from over £1 billion of City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement (CRSTS) funding up to 2026/27, and set to benefit from indicative CRSTS2 funding of over £2.6 billion between 2027/28 and 2031/32.