The Cross Rifles Roundabout where 2 A- Roads merge was going to be widened until the council ran out of money! Is this about to change under John Healey’s plans?
A Rigged Game in Whitehall: For too long, the way government investment is handed out has favoured London and the capital's commuter belt. The old formulas were built to chase quick, high-density financial returns, treating fast-paced capital projects as a safer bet than long-term regional growth.
The Cost to Market Towns: That spreadsheet logic left market towns and regions outside the bubble constantly fighting for scraps, while major infrastructure funding flowed straight back into the South East. Places like Bridgwater were left dealing with infrastructure bottlenecks and regeneration hurdles under a system that fundamentally stacked the deck against them.
Time for a Reality Check: Now, with the Chancellor John Healey indicating that rules will change to give more parts of the UK a fair hearing on project funding, there is a chance for a shift in mindset. Changing the rules on paper is a start, but the real test is whether it translates into tangible support for our high streets, transport networks, and local future rather than just another round of London-centric smoke and mirrors.
John Healey in his growth speech yesterday.
Visualising the Difference: We've all heard the big promises before, and changing a spreadsheet in Whitehall doesn't mean the bulldozers roll in tomorrow. But shifting the rules is the only way to stop Bridgwater from perpetually getting short-changed. Imagine a town where long-term funding isn't an uphill battle against a London-centric formula—where we finally get a Dunball bypass to beat the traffic, repurpose the old Scott Cinema site into a proper youth hub like they have in Minehead with the Minehead Eye, step in to buy up derelict empty shops for pop-up shops, and spruce up that tired 1980s paving on Fore Street and Cornhill. That is what fair regional investment should look like on the ground.
Join the Conversation: Do you think a shift in Whitehall thinking will finally bring fair investment down to Somerset, or have you heard it all before?
