Press release: Still no decision on A38 road expansion
11 June 2025
For immediate release
Still no decision on A38 road expansion, campaigners call for clarity and common sense
Local residents from the Stop the A38 Expansion Campaign[1] were expecting an announcement on if the A38 Derby Junctions expansion will receive funding or not in the Government’s infrastructure spending review. The road scheme is one of seven National Highways projects in the spending review.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves delivered a speech about the spending review in Parliament but there was no news on the A38 scheme announced today. However there was welcome news on rail and tram investment and the bus fare £3 cap will remain.
The scheme, which would see the A38 widened from 4 lanes to 6 lanes near Markeaton, Kingsway, and Little Eaton, including overpasses and underpasses, would take over four years to complete and cost an expected £250 million or more.
It has been widely criticised for relying on an outdated economic case and for its environmental and community impacts, including the felling of thousands of trees[2], increasing carbon emissions[3] and air pollution, especially near Markeaton roundabout and the Royal School for the Deaf.[4]
National Highways states that the scheme’s main aims are to reduce congestion, improve journey time reliability on the A38 between Birmingham, Derby, and the M1, and support economic growth by enabling at least 11,000 new road-dependent developments in the surrounding areas.
However, critics highlight that road schemes like this often lead to induced demand—where increasing road capacity encourages more traffic—which can quickly fill the new space and negate any congestion relief. They urge new developments to have multiple transport links, not just reliance on a single road’s capacity. National Highways’ 2017 Pinch Point Programme largely failed to deliver the promised reductions in congestion and economic benefits[5].
Those opposed argue it would be far more effective, less disruptive, and environmentally beneficial to invest in improving local public transport services, creating better active travel infrastructure, and planning new developments with sustainable transport connections to reduce pressure on the road network.
The scheme was found unlawful in 2021 due to failings in the environmental assessment around carbon emissions. The Government reapproved the scheme in 2023 despite ongoing concerns about an outdated economic assessment. While a second legal challenge on the outdated economic assessment was unsuccessful, the courts accepted the assessment was incomplete and outdated but ruled that the then Transport Minister had the authority to approve the scheme without updated information, on the understanding it would be provided at the Full Business Case stage.
The Full Business Case for the A38 expansion, which will provide the updated costs and assessments, is due in June 2026.
The cost of the A38 project is likely to escalate, as seen with other major road schemes—such as the A50 junction upgrade, which doubled in cost,[6] and the M3 Junction 9, which rose from £215m to £290m in just two years[7].
Despite there still being no decision, the Stop the A38 Expansion Campaign has pledged to continue opposing the scheme and pressing for the money to be reallocated to sustainable transport instead.
The Stop the A38 Expansion campaign said:
“It is concerning that there is still no clear decision from the Government on whether to fund the A38 Derby Junctions scheme. We urge Ministers to listen to the evidence and local voices before committing public money to a destructive, polluting, and outdated road project.
This scheme is based on the mistaken belief that building bigger roads will reduce congestion and provide economic growth but in reality, it often leads to more traffic, more pollution, and only short-term relief at best. Many other major road schemes have delivered little benefit while causing significant environmental and community harm.
We continue to call for public investment to be directed instead toward public transport and active travel—solutions that genuinely reduce congestion, tackle climate change, improve air quality, and offer long-term benefits for all residents of Derby.”
Unlike investment in active travel and public transport, road schemes fail to increase opportunities for many people and worsen inequality, as over 20% of households do not have access to a car. [8]
This is not the end of the road. We will continue pushing to scrap this scheme and redirect funding to sustainable transport that benefits everyone.”
Footnotes for editors:
[1] A group of concerned local residents who have been campaigning against the scheme since 2019 and launched two legal challenges.https://www.a38derbychaos.org/
[2] Trees to be felled detailed on page 96 of National Highways’ planning document Deadline 9 Submission - 6.1 Environmental Statement Chapter 8(a) - Biodiversity - Tracked (PDF, 706KB) https://nsip-documents.planninginspectorate.gov.uk/published-documents/TR010022-001207-6-1_ES_-_Chapter_8(a)_-_.pdf
[3] Carbon emission increase detailed on page 24 of National Highways’ planning document 6.1 Environmental Statement Chapter 14 - Climate (PDF, 149KB) https://nsip-documents.planninginspectorate.gov.uk/published-documents/TR010022-000456-TR010022_A38_6.1_Environmental_Statement_Chapter_14.pdf
[4] Air pollution increase at Royal School of the Deaf on page 33 of National Highways’ planning document 6.1 Environmental Statement Chapter 5 - Air Quality (PDF, 263KB) https://nsip-documents.planninginspectorate.gov.uk/published-documents/TR010022-000446-TR010022_A38_6.1_Environmental_Statement_Chapter_5.pdf
[5] National Highways published a report in 2017 which found that congestion was made worse on dozens of major roads in England by a project to tackle bottlenecks. The pinch-point programme was started in 2011 to relieve congestion, stimulate growth in local economies and improve safety, but the report showed most schemes had failed to do this. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/791450/National_PP_Programme_Meta_Final_draft.pdf
[6] The A50 junction scheme has doubled in price since 2021 now costing over £70 million. https://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/news/local-news/cost-new-a50-junction-south-9970833
[7] The M3 Junction 9 costs have rocketed in just over two years, up by over a third, from £215m to £290m. https://transportactionnetwork.org.uk/new-roads-true-costs-hidden-by-national-highways/
[8] DfT statistics: Household access to a car in England https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/national-travel-survey-2023/nts-2023-car-availability-and-trends-in-car-trips