Decisions on whether to fund the construction of the scheme will be made by the Department for Transport based on future business case submissions. There is no requirement for individual business cases to compare the benefits or returns from one scheme with investment in alternative projects and GCC has therefore not undertaken such analysis. However, the Department for Transport determines overall funding allocations for roads, public transport and active travel. Funding decisions are generally made within these allocations and would be expected to take account of the fact that providing funding for this scheme would affect funding availability for other projects.

The options identification and sifting process for this scheme has considered investment in public transport and active travel infrastructure as alternatives to a road scheme. This work concluded that such options by themselves would not meet scheme objectives with respect to addressing the problems identified at M5 Junction 9 and on the A46, or enabling future growth of the area. However, improving provision for public transport and active travel is likely to play an important role in the future development of the area alongside investment in new roads. Further information is provided in Section 2 of the Option generation and sifting document.