No money for Brierley Hill tram extension, council says

Rising inflation and energy costs were having an impact, Ian Ward said.

Plans to extend the metro tram system in the Black Country have been thrown into doubt after councillors said there was no more money to pay for it.

The network was due to be extended from Wednesbury to Brierley Hill, but a West Midlands Combined Authority meeting heard there was no funding.

"The truth is, we do not have the money" Ian Ward, Birmingham City Council leader, said.

Rising inflation and energy costs were having an impact, he said.

Cuts to assisted travel policies which use 20% of Transport for West Midlands total budget could also happen, Mr Ward, the authority's transport sub committee chair, added.

Dudley councillor Cathryn Bayton and meeting chairperson, asked Mr Ward "where does the authority go" if funding does not match its transport ambitions.

"Cut our cloth"

"I think the answer to that is fairly obvious," Mr Ward said.

"We will have to cut our cloth to suit won't we?" 

"The Wednesbury to Brierley Hill metro - there is not funding for.

"But it has been built into the medium term financial plan - some £4.8m from 2025-26 onwards to support that - but the truth is we do not have the money."

He said there had been a reliance on "the assumption that things will all remain the same", but inflation rates at 10%, "rocketing" energy prices and rising interest rates had not stayed the same.

He said it was not clear if the government could pay for the extension.

In March, the budget and full business case for a £43.3m scheme to expand a tram depot in Wednesbury to cope with a bigger network in the West Midlands was approved by the the authority.

A WMCA report at the time said the expanded site would accommodate 46 trams with the potential in the future to maintain up to 69 trams if future extensions of the network were made.