The building of new smart motorways is being cancelled as Rishi Sunak acknowledged concerns about safety and cost.
Fourteen planned smart motorways – including 11 that are already paused and three earmarked for construction – will be removed from government road-building plans, given financial pressures and in recognition of the lack of public trust.
Downing Street confirmed the move, first reported by the Telegraph, which also said existing stretches will remain but be subjected to a safety refit so there are more emergency stopping places.
About 10% of England’s motorway network is made up of smart motorways. They involve various methods to manage the flow of traffic, such as converting the hard shoulder into a live running lane and variable speed limits.
But there have been longstanding safety fears after fatal incidents in which vehicles stopped in live lanes without a hard shoulder were hit from behind.
In January 2022, the government paused the expansion of motorways where the hard shoulder is used as a permanent live traffic lane. This was to enable five years of data to be collected to assess whether they are safe for drivers.
In his Tory leadership campaign last summer, Sunak vowed to ban them. “All drivers deserve to have confidence in the roads they use to get around the country,” the Telegraph quoted him as saying.
“That’s why last year I pledged to stop the building of all new smart motorways, and today I’m making good on that promise.
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“Many people across the country rely on driving to get to work, to take their children to school and go about their daily lives, and I want them to be able to do so with full confidence that the roads they drive on are safe.”
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