{"id":565015,"date":"2026-05-04T03:29:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T03:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/565015\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T03:29:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T03:29:09","slug":"investment-or-waste-how-the-m4-relief-road-plan-for-newport-sums-up-waless-economic-quandary-infrastructure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/565015\/","title":{"rendered":"Investment or waste? How the M4 relief road plan for Newport sums up Wales\u2019s economic quandary | Infrastructure"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is afternoon rush hour on the M4 and drivers are yet again making slow progress around the city of Newport, often seen as the gateway to south Wales<\/a> given its location between Cardiff and Bristol.<\/p>\n

Cars and lorries are stuck in gridlocked traffic in both directions on the approach to the Brynglas tunnels, where the road narrows to two lanes in each direction, while flashing lights warn motorists in Welsh and English of a ciw (queue).<\/p>\n

Traffic jams may be an everyday reality for commuters and businesses trying to move goods around, but they have also become a hotly debated topic before the Senedd elections on 7 May, in a vote predicted to bring sweeping political change<\/a> to the principality, and send Labour into opposition<\/a> for the first time since devolution in 1999.<\/p>\n

The Newport Transporter Bridge at dusk. Photograph: Alick Cotterill\/Alamy<\/p>\n

Congestion on this part of the M4 \u2013 the main route linking south Wales with England \u2013 has been complained about by businesses and commuters for decades, while a relief road around Newport has been proposed for almost as long. Motorists say tailbacks cost time and money, and make the country less attractive to potential investors.<\/p>\n

Poor public services, and frustration over long waiting times for NHS treatment, rank top of the concerns for Welsh voters before the election, along with disappointment with transport services and infrastructure like roads, rail and buses.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there is an accident on the motorway, the whole of Newport is gridlocked,\u201d says Rosemary, 81, waiting at the city\u2019s bus station. \u201cWe could have done with that new relief road, it would have been a big help.\u201d<\/p>\n

The retired shop worker is dependent on buses to visit the shops and her daughter in a nearby town. \u201cIt\u2019s not a very reliable bus service, it\u2019s become really poor since the pandemic,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

The six main political parties are split over how to tackle the tailbacks, and the issue prompted fiery exchanges during a leaders\u2019 debate<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Two people in the running to become the next first minister<\/a>, the leader of Plaid Cymru, Rhun ap Iorwerth, and Reform UK Wales leader, Dan Thomas, both support a new road, along with the Conservatives. Meanwhile, Labour, the Greens and the Liberal Democrats have declared themselves against.<\/p>\n

Public services and transport are the main concerns for former shop workers in Llantrisant, enjoying a catch-up coffee. Left to right: Lisa Owen, Cheryl Tucker and Karen Jones Photograph: Joanna Partridge<\/p>\n

After years of political indecision, soaring costs and opposition from environmental groups, the relief road project was finally scrapped by the Labour-led Welsh government<\/a> in 2019, citing the projected \u00a31.4bn cost, and the adverse impact on its planned location on the Gwent Levels nature reserve.<\/p>\n

Opposition parties have criticised Labour for the \u00a3114m spend on the project before cancellation, although the party has pledged to improve public transport, cap adult bus fares and expand the \u201cSouth Wales metro\u201d rail electrification project. The network of tram-trains<\/a>, able to run on rail and tram lines, is over budget, but scheduled to enter service shortly.<\/p>\n

On a bright spring day, the sun glints off the river Usk that flows through Newport before reaching the Severn estuary and spanned by the transporter bridge<\/a>, symbolising the city\u2019s industrial heritage when huge quantities of Welsh coal and steel were loaded on to ships at its docks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe No 1 issue for my members is the M4, the congestion and uncertainty,\u201d says Josh Fenton, senior policy manager at industry body Logistics UK. \u201cThe longer HGVs are sat in traffic, that\u2019s adding to cost, making things more difficult, and potentially putting some businesses off setting up locally.\u201d<\/p>\n

Any new road would cost considerably more than the \u00a31.4bn previously estimated, after recent construction cost increases and inflation.<\/p>\n

double quotation markThe No 1 issue for my members is the M4, the congestion and uncertainty. The longer HGVs are sat in traffic, that\u2019s adding to cost, potentially putting some businesses off setting up locallyJosh Fenton, senior policy manager at Logistics UK<\/p>\n

The cost could be \u201cpotentially even up to \u00a32.5bn and the Welsh government\u2019s capital budget is about \u00a33bn,\u201d says David Philips, head of devolved and local government finance at the Institute for Fiscal Studies<\/a> (IFS).<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if they were to do this over two terms, you\u2019re looking at some \u00a3300m a year, which is 10% of the Welsh government\u2019s capital budget. Then there\u2019s lots of ambition for other things, like social housing, railways and investment in school and health facilities,\u201d adds Philips.<\/p>\n

The two parties topping the polls, Plaid and Reform, agree on the need for a new road, yet hold differing views on how to pay. At the Newport launch of Reform\u2019s manifesto for the Senedd elections, party leader Nigel Farage said he would build a \u201ctoll road\u201d<\/a>, while Plaid have not laid out how they would fund the scheme.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt comes with some kind of cost,\u201d says Philips. \u201cEither you need to borrow in an expensive way, or you need to cut back some other areas, or you need to raise additional revenue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Putting 1p on all rates of income tax across Wales could raise \u00a3400m a year, Philips calculates, although he notes \u201cyou could say this is for an investment in transport, but people in north Wales wouldn\u2019t be very happy about that\u201d.<\/p>\n

Plaid and Reform also offer vastly differing visions for the Welsh economy: Reform has previously proposed reviving Wales\u2019 industrial past<\/a>, including coal mining and steel making, while Plaid has promised to increase public procurement from Welsh businesses and create a new national development agency.<\/p>\n

Whoever runs the next government in Cardiff will face a \u201cWelsh budget under significant pressure\u201d, according to the IFS, amid a slowdown in increases in UK government funding, and a growing demand for health and social care, prompting the thinktank to call on the main parties to be \u201cmore upfront about fiscal reality\u201d.<\/p>\n

Back in the 1970s, when Wales began to lose mining and heavy industry, it had some success in attracting foreign investment, partly thanks to transport links offered by the M4. However, much of this investment proved temporary, and many large multinationals have come and gone in the intervening years, including carmaker Ford, which closed its Bridgend engine plant<\/a> in 2020, as well as South Korea\u2019s LG and white goods manufacturer, Hotpoint.<\/p>\n

The Newport transporter bridge which spans the River Usk symbolising the city\u2019s industrial heritage when huge quantities of Welsh coal and steel were loaded on to ships at its docks. Photograph: Phillip Roberts\/Alamy<\/p>\n

Transport infrastructure could now deter other overseas investors from setting up in Wales, according to Gareth Jenkins, executive chair of manufacturer FSG Tool and Die, located a quick \u2013 or sometimes slow \u2013 20 miles up the road from Newport in Llantrisant, which is also home to the Royal Mint, producer of the UK\u2019s coins.<\/p>\n

FSG employs about 100 people, mostly specialist engineers who make the tools that allow Starbucks to produce reusable cups, McDonald\u2019s to make plastic sauce pots, and Tesla to make battery cases for its electric vehicles, for customers as far afield as the US and Bolivia.<\/p>\n

Roads are \u201cgenerally a nightmare\u201d, says Jenkins. \u201cI can\u2019t prove it\u2019s affecting inward investment, but, if I was an investor, I\u2019d be thinking: \u2018Can I get a good building cheaply? Where can I get my people from? Can I move my stuff?\u2019\u201d says the plain-speaking Welshman, who previously advised the Welsh government on the manufacturing sector after the financial crisis.<\/p>\n

Manufacturing still accounts for about a sixth of Wales\u2019s economic output, the highest share in the UK relative to the economy\u2019s size, according to industry body, MakeUK. The sector employs 138,000 people in Wales, vital for a country with lower employment and higher economic inactivity than any other UK nation or region apart from Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor manufacturing in Wales, there\u2019s two routes out, one in the north, one in the south. It\u2019s not acceptable to say \u2018We\u2019ve got what we\u2019ve got and we\u2019re not going to spend any more money on the M4.\u2019 You\u2019ve got to move goods around and it isn\u2019t going to go from Cardiff airport and is very unlikely to go from Port Talbot docks.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Welsh government recently won a case<\/a> over its \u00a3205m decade-long subsidy package for state-owned Cardiff airport, brought by its rival in Bristol. Companies such as FSG are calling for an expansion in the airport\u2019s cargo operations beyond several weekly freight flights to China, launched in 2024.<\/p>\n

Public services and transport are the main concerns for Cheryl Tucker, and former colleagues Lisa Owen and Karen Jones, enjoying a coffee and a catch-up at a cafe around the corner from FSG.<\/p>\n

Top priority would be more hospitals and improved medical care, Tucker says, adding \u201cbut you need a good road network to get to hospital or other places\u201d.<\/p>\n

Despite these frustrations, their disenchantment with politics means Tucker and her friends are not planning to vote in the Senedd election.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is afternoon rush hour on the M4 and drivers are yet again making slow progress around the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":565016,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-565015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=565015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/565016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=565015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=565015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=565015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}