Lower Thames Crossing Wider Economic Impacts Business Surveys

Steer-ED was commissioned by National Highways to conduct qualitative research into the potential business impacts of the proposed Lower Thames Crossing (LTC) road scheme.

The project consists of a series of 35 semi-structured depth interviews conducted with businesses and business representative groups from the local area. Some businesses/groups with a national remit will also be interviewed.

The interviews will provide an in-depth and nuanced account of how congestion in the area, particularly at the constrained Dartford Crossing, affects decisions around a company’s choice of location, customer catchment, supplier network and employee base. The interviews will then go on to ask how the proposed LTC scheme could lead to changes in each of these domains.

Findings will be segmented according to business type and sector. While a range of business impacts will be studied, a particular focus of the work is to gain qualitative evidence of benefits described in the Department for Transport’s Transport Appraisal Guidance as ‘Level 3 Wider Economic Impacts’, which are notoriously difficult to observe and quantify.

The project is expected to conclude in March 2023.