The A38 Derby Junctions scheme is a £646 million* road expansion through Derby that was approved on an economic assessment last updated in 2019, and the economic case has been collapsing ever since.

Use the buttons below to send a pre-written letter in under two minutes, then read on to understand why this matters.

When the scheme was approved, decision makers formally recorded that all of the following weighed against it:

• Permanent destruction of nearly 12 hectares of woodland, centuries old trees and a Local Wildlife Site
• Increased carbon emissions from both construction and increased traffic
• Worsened air quality, especially around Markeaton and the Royal School for the Deaf
• Demolition of homes and compulsory purchase of people's land
• Over four years of severe construction disruption with no finalised traffic management plan
• Temporary and permanent pedestrian and cyclist pathway severance
• Heritage damage in Markeaton Park
• Increased flood risk

Every single one of these harms was formally recorded as weighing against approval. The main justification for overriding them was the supposed economic benefit - congestion relief and facilitating development. That justification is now collapsing.

The economic case no longer stacks up:

• The benefit-cost ratio has fallen from 2.6 in 2019 to 1.11 by October 2024 and may now be below 1.0, meaning the scheme costs more than it delivers
• Costs have tripled from £200-250 million to over £646 million*
• Traffic modelling has not been updated since 2019, despite housing numbers growing from a minimum of 11,000 to 43,000
• National Highways' own documents predict the scheme will increase traffic - induced demand
• Derby City Council's own analysis warns the scheme may simply move congestion from the A38 onto surrounding local roads, with no guaranteed funding for the Council to deal with the consequences

The oversight has been removed:

• During the re-examination in 2022-23, concerns were raised that TAG guidance changes had not been applied to the scheme's economic assessment. The Secretary of State was explicitly aware of these concerns and decided it was not proportionate to update the assessment before approving the scheme
• The Department then successfully defended a 2024 legal challenge in part by assuring the court that a Full Business Case incorporating an updated economic assessment would be completed before construction funds were committed. That Full Business Case does not exist — National Highways said it would be ready by June 2026, but no contractor has been appointed and no tender issued, making that timeline implausible
• In March 2026 the government quietly raised the threshold for mandatory project oversight from £500 million to £1 billion, removing the A38 from independent scrutiny at the moment its costs were rising and its economic case was weakening
• The Department for Transport confirmed in writing that no Accounting Officer Assessment — a basic Treasury spending check — has been initiated and no correspondence with the Treasury about one exists
• The scheme was nonetheless included in the 2024 Spending Review and Road Investment Strategy 3 without a Full Business Case or Accounting Officer Assessment.
• National Highways withheld cost figures from public disclosure and had to be forced to release them through an ICO ruling in December 2025 — then appealed that ruling before withdrawing under pressure. The DfT has separately refused FOI requests about what economic information was given to ministers during the Spending Review. A scheme of this scale should not require legal action to obtain basic cost transparency

We have already written to the National Audit Office requesting a Value for Money examination. Now we need your help to pile on the pressure.

Use this action to send tailored letters directly to the people who have the power to act. Each letter is pre-written and takes less than two minutes to send.

The harms that decision makers said were justified by the economic benefits remain. The economic benefits no longer credibly exist.

Construction is not until 2030. There is still time. Write today.


* ORR National Highways annual assessment 2024-25, July 2025 (A38 cost increase of £417 million from £200-250 million (Figure 5.10, p.77): https://www.orr.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2025-08/annual-assessment-of-national-highways-performance-2024-2025-web.pdf