Rachel Reeves visits Newcastle: Chancellor on Tyne Bridge work cash

Rachel Reeves has refused to commit to a Government pledge to pay for the full restoration of the Tyne Bridge.

There remains uncertainty over the final £6 million of promised funding for the rusted North East icon’s refurbishment. After this week’s Budget failed to clarify whether or not the cash will be delivered, Department for Transport (DfT) officials confirmed to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) on Thursday that the scheme remained under review.

And, speaking on a visit to Tyneside on Friday morning, the Chancellor was unwilling to offer any assurance that Labour would stick to a commitment made under Rishi Sunak’s Conservative administration last year to meet 100% of the refurbishment costs. Work began on the long-awaited repairs this April, after the Government provided an initial £35.2 million towards the overall £41.4 million cost of fixing up both the Tyne Bridge and a section of the Central Motorway.

But Mr Sunak had pledged in October 2023, following the scrapping of HS2’s northern leg, that the DfT would provide a cash uplift to cover the full bill – an extra £6.2 million that is yet to be delivered to Newcastle and Gateshead councils.

Asked during a visit to the Accord Healthcare pharmaceuticals factory in Fawdon why Labour was yet to sign off on that funding since coming to power, Ms Reeves said: “That is one of the projects [transport secretary] Louise Haigh is reviewing. It is one of those projects where, again, the previous Government had not put the money aside. She will be announcing the outcome of that review.”

This week has seen Labour decide to scrap the plans to dual the A1 in Northumberland, having deemed them “unfunded and unaffordable”. In the summer, Ms Haigh announced that she was commissioning a review of her department’s capital spend portfolio in light of an alleged £2.9 billion of “unfunded transport commitments” made by the Conservatives.

But the continued uncertainty over the Tyne Bridge cash has prompted worries about a knock-on impact for the restoration scheme’s chances of being completed in time for the Grade II* listed crossing’s centenary celebrations in October 2028. Greg Stone, a Liberal Democrat opposition councillor in the city, warned on Thursday: “The failure to commit to finding the missing money to complete the Tyne Bridge renovation works is an oversight which has serious implications for getting the job done in time for the 100th anniversary and will only add to the financial headaches at Newcastle and Gateshead councils.”

Engineers have already identified more than 1,000 repairs that need to be carried out on the Tyne Bridge, which had not undergone any major maintenance for more than 20 years. The first repaired and repainted sections of the bridge have been unveiled to the public this week, as scaffolding begins to come down around its Gateshead tower and work shifts over to the Newcastle side.

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