SNP’s failure to build dual carriageways is costing motorists' lives. But there is a solution
The Scottish Parliament resumes next week after the summer recess, and it is expected that we will have a statement from the Finance Secretary, Shona Robison, in relation to the state of the Scottish public finances. No one anticipates good news.
Already the SNP have had to announce that there will be an emergency break on new spending commitments, due to the dire financial position. We have already seen the winter fuel payment being scrapped, and the end to the pilot scheme on reducing peak-time rail fares. With the Budget due to be set out later in the autumn, we can expect further tax rises or cuts to programmes.
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Hide AdWhilst the SNP will try to blame choices made by the Labour government at Westminster for this, they cannot evade responsibility themselves. We have seen hundreds of millions wasted in recent times, on ferries that are not sailing, on a failed deposit return scheme hated by industry, and on a census that failed to deliver, to name but a few. Moreover, the choices by the Scottish Government to award inflation-busting pay deals across the public sector have played a major part in creating the current gap between income and spending.
What this means is that vital infrastructure projects, many of them already delayed for years, are likely to be put back still further. New-build programmes in the NHS, necessary to deliver the capacity required to reduce waiting lists, have all been put on hold.


Dualling the A9 is vital
Equally seriously, vital road upgrades which have been awaited for years, needed both in terms of improving road safety and driving economic growth, are now likely to progress even more slowly. I have had an interest for many years on the vital need to see the upgrading of the A9 between Perth and Inverness to full dual carriageway status. This was promised by the SNP to be completed by 2025, but progress has been woefully slow.
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Hide AdThe Scottish Parliament’s Public Petitions and Citizen Participation Committee has been investigating the matter, and has heard in evidence from former Infrastructure Secretary Alex Neil and former First Minister Alex Salmond that, when they left their respective roles in government, the project was on track, and the funds had been identified. Somewhere between then and now the whole project has gone awry under the leaderships of Nicola Sturgeon, Humza Yousaf and John Swinney. It needs to get back on track, as a matter of urgency.
Hardly a week goes by without there being a serious or fatal accident on single-carriageway sections of the A9. With the route busy with tourists at this time of year, many unfamiliar to driving on the left-hand side of the road, it is sadly no surprise that we see so many incidents.
Expect more avoidable deaths
Every year that goes by without this project being completed results in yet more avoidable deaths, each one a tragedy impacting the family and friends of those involved, and carrying with it significant economic costs. It is also a reality that the failure to address A9 dualling is acting as an impediment on further economic expansion in Perthshire and the Highlands.
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Hide AdIt is not just the A9 that is in this category. Other major routes across Scotland, including the A1, the A96, A77 and A75 are in need of investment to improve them, both to help enhance road safety, and to drive economic growth. Every delay in making these improvements means that we are not getting the benefits of a modern, efficient, fast and safe road network.
But without the public funds to pay for it, how can these be progressed? If we have to wait until taxpayer-provided capital funding is in place, it could be decades more before we see the improvements.
Private finance offers hope
The alternative approach is now to have a proper consideration of funding these improved roads through private finance. There are certainly investors always interested in supporting public infrastructure projects, with the appropriate financial structures put in place.
It is true to say that early iterations of the Private Finance Initiative provided poor value for money for the taxpayer. There are now much more sophisticated schemes in place, such as the Mutual Investment Model (MIM), currently being designed by the Welsh Government to support additional investment in social and economic infrastructure projects. Under this model, private partners build and maintain public assets in return for a fee from the Welsh Government, and at the end of the contract the asset is transferred into public ownership.
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Hide AdThe Scottish Futures Trust, which advises the Scottish Government on investment, has taken an interest in MIM as a model for Scotland. There are, of course, alternative schemes that can be investigated to make use of private finance where public resources are not available.
Creating a virtuous circle
The advantages of such an approach are clear. It would allow the delivery of infrastructure projects, such as A9 dualling, much earlier than otherwise could be realised. This would deliver real benefits in reducing road deaths, and expanding economic opportunities.
Whatever finance model is chosen, there would still be a cost to the public purse. But creating new infrastructure which drives economic growth helps expand the tax base, therefore creating greater tax revenues which can be funnelled back in to meeting the finance charges. It creates a virtuous circle of investment, construction, economic benefit and growing tax revenues.
Whatever the funding mechanisms, we need to be innovative in our approach. Delaying vital infrastructure upgrades will, in the long run, cost us more, both financially and in human lives. If it takes private investment to make a difference, we should embrace it.
Murdo Fraser is a Scottish Conservative MSP for Mid-Scotland and Fife
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