Revealed: Ipswich MP admits Labour Government have no funding for Northern Bypass scheme
Information disclosed by the Department for Transport confirms that Jack Abbott MP was made aware that there are 'no funding pots right now' for Northern Bypass
Disclosures recently made by the Department for Transport confirms that a Labour MP was told, and acknowledged that no funding would be made available for an Ipswich northern bypass scheme, should one be developed.
In correspondence between civil servants from the DfT in February, questions from the Member of Parliament for Ipswich, Jack Abbott, admit that there are “no funding pots right now.”
This website published a story in February detailing how information disclosed by the Department stated that Mr Abbott would be told that there was no funding available after his ministerial surgery meeting with Simon Lightwood MP, a DfT junior minister.
Abbott, who serves in the government as the Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy’s Parliamentary Private Secretary, went on to ask civil servants, “what would be the process for the council if they did want to bid for funding? What would they need to provide?“
Hi [name withheld – s40]
Hope you’re well.
I can’t find the chain but a few months ago I think you helped me with a query around proposals for an Ipswich Northern Bypass which is being pushed by Jack Abbott MP.
This is what I told SpAds at the time:
“The main case for an Ipswich Northern Bypass in my reading is to increase reliability around road closures on the A14 - National Highways have a set of projects planned around the A14 scheduled to start in 2026 and run till the end of RIS3 (2031). This includes bridge joint replacement on the Eastbound carriageway to maintain the Orwell Bridge (following the completion of the Westbound carriageway in 2025) which will increase reliability anyway so the case for a major intervention like a £500m bypass is likely to be weaker still once those works are complete.”
Jack has now come back with the following:
What is the expected impact of these two schemes on the congestion over the bridge (which the MP claims is the main reason why there is congestion elsewhere), i.e. how strong would the case for major intervention be after these schemes?
Appreciate there are no funding pots right now, but what would be the process for the council if they did want to bid for funding? What would they need to provide?
Civil servants have also cast doubt on the need for a bypass, due to the recent joint replacement works on the Orwell Bridge, stating that they will increase the reliability of the structure, and so “the case for a major intervention like a £500m bypass is likely to be weaker still once those works are complete.“
All of this comes just weeks after Suffolk County Council voted to explore all possible options around solving the issues that the Ipswich area, and its surrounding transport connections face when going into the future, with a report set to be delivered to Cabinet by the end of September 2026.