A9 dualling: Cost rises to nearly £4bn as private financing ditched as poor value for money
Fiona Hyslop insists 2035 completion remains “absolute priority”
The cost of completing dualling of the A9 between Perth and Inverness has increased to nearly £4 billion as ministers confirmed The Scotsman’s revelation that they had ditched private financing to pay for much of the rest of the huge project.
Transport Secretary Fiona Hyslop told MSPs on Wednesday the scheme’s cost had risen from £3.7bn to £3.97bn and a novel private funding method had been rejected as poor value for money.
However, she insisted the target to complete the work by 2035 - ten years late - remained despite the cost now being entirely borne by the public purse. She described it as an “absolute priority”.
She added: “I can also confirm that the updated cost estimate for the programme is now £3.97bn at April 2025 prices” - up from £3.7bn.
“When adjusted for inflation, that is equivalent to £2.5bn at April 2008 prices, which remains well within the original cost estimate of £3bn at 2008 prices.”
Ms Hyslop said: “This Government remains committed to provide the necessary funding in support of the estimated costs in order to deliver the programme on track in 2035.”
A new “mutual investment model” (MIM) method of private financing was due to have paid for more than 50 miles of the remaining 70 miles of the road to be upgraded.
However, Ms Hyslop said: “Our updated financial modelling indicates that the cost of MIM contracts is now estimated to be around 28 per cent higher than the cost of equivalent capital funded contracts, an increase from the 16 per cent difference estimated in 2023.
“It was therefore concluded that using MIM contracts for the A9 Dualling Programme would provide relatively poorer commercial value for money than would be provided by capital funded contracts and the Government will therefore progress the programme to completion using capital funded contracts.”
Ms Hyslop warned that the decision “has implications for how completion of the programme by 2035 will be achieved”.
She said it would mean some work being completed earlier than scheduled, with 50 per cent finished by the end of 2030, 67 per cent by the end of 2032, 91 per cent by the end of 2034 and 100 per cent by the end of 2035.
That compares to the previous timescales of almost 50 per cent by 2030, 85 per cent by 2033 and completion by the end of 2025.
A £1.9bn “framework agreement” will be used for the remaining sections, including the Slochd to Dalraddy and Crubenmore to Killiecrankie stretches which were due to be privately funded.
Ms Hyslop said the winning contractors would be chosen by the end of this year.
David Macdonald, chairman of the Civil Engineering Contractors Association Scotland, which represents road building firms, said: “We welcome the news that the remaining A9 Dualling Programme sections will be taken forward as capitally-funded contracts, providing more certainty for Scotland’s contracting industry of the opportunities available on this major infrastructure programme for Scotland.”
However, Scottish Conservatives transport spokesperson Sue Webber said the announcement reflected the “catastrophic project mismanagement” by the Scottish Government.
“No one will believe the transport secretary’s blithe assurances that it will be dualled by 2035 when they have been let down so many times since the Nationalists first promised it would be completed by 2025.”
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