Staffordshire business leaders are stepping up pressure on government and National Highways to deliver long-awaited improvements to the A50/A500 corridor, warning that further delays risk undermining a nationally significant route at the heart of the UK’s road network.
Staffordshire Chambers of Commerce has written to Jacob Collier, MP for Burton and Uttoxeter, in his role as Parliamentary Champion for the A50/A500 growth corridor, calling for continued political pressure to ensure the programme does not slip further into the next decade.
The corridor is a key east-west link between the M6 and M1, connecting major economic centres across Staffordshire, Stoke-on-Trent, Derbyshire and the wider Midlands. Business leaders argue that improving the route is not just a local transport priority, but a national economic issue, with the potential to strengthen freight movement, improve journey reliability and unlock growth along one of the UK’s most important strategic road corridors.
The intervention follows the government’s March 2026 announcement that improvements to four junctions along the A50 corridor, together with a scheme to reduce congestion and increase capacity at Junction 15 of the M6, would not be taken forward under the current highways investment round up to 2031.
Instead, the schemes have been placed in the next highways spending programme, expected between 2030 and 2035.
The Chamber said this “effectively means that there is little prospect of short term tangible progress” and that “any chance of shovels in the ground won’t become a reality until into the next decade, at the very earliest.”
In the letter, signed by Staffordshire Chambers chief executive Stuart Elford and transport forum chair Mike Herbert, the Chamber warned that “there is a risk of tension in delivery of other RIS3 schemes”, which could push back the improvements or see the corridor “falling between the cracks of tactical smaller roads improvement schemes and major new roads/junctions schemes.”
The Chamber said it had “always called for a corridor wide strategy” and warned: “Quite simply, if the schemes of improvement are separated, there is a risk of collapse of the very business case which underpins a corridor level improvement package.”
It has also written to National Highways seeking clarity on when each Project Control Framework stage will be completed, including PCF stage 4, “at which completion of statutory procedures takes place.”
Business leaders say the corridor’s importance extends well beyond transport, supporting new homes, strategic employment sites and wider UK productivity.
The letter said improvements to the A50/A500 corridor represented “a once-in-a-generation opportunity to act as a catalyst for the region’s growth, as well as growth for the wider UK economy.”
The Chamber added that it would “continue to press for the timely completion of all corridor improvements.”
• Look out for feedback in Daily Focus from National Highways and Jacob Collier MP.
