Mersey Gateway Project annual financial report published
The latest annual financial report into Mersey Gateway Project income and expenditure has been published by the Mersey Gateway Crossings Board.
The report details income and expenditure data in relation to the Mersey Gateway Project for the last five financial years up to the end of March 2025. It is the last twelve months’ worth of data which is newly published.
It shows that:
- Annual revenue grew by just over 4% to circa £50m compared to the previous financial year
- Annual costs grew by less than 3% to a little short of £65m for the same time period
As a result, the annual deficit reduced by £0.3m from £14.9m in 2023-24 to £14.6m in 2024-25. This annual deficit is covered by a grant from the Department for Transport. If the DfT did not provide this annual funding, then toll charges would have to be increased every year to cover this deficit.
The DfT grant is paid in advance, with 85% of any unused grant being returned to the DfT once the final figures are known. This unused element of the grant funding cannot be used to offset toll charges as it belongs to the DfT. Full details of the annual grants and unused funds returned to the DfT are included in the attached income and expenditure report.
The remaining 15% of the unused annual grant from the DfT, which in 2024-25 amounted to just under £1.2m, is retained by Halton Borough Council and ring-fenced for spending on sustainable transport issues.
This money is being / has been used by Halton Borough Council to fund to certain types of activities including maintaining the Silver Jubilee Bridge, payments into a reserve fund in respect of the Silver Jubilee Bridge and sustainable transport, as restricted by the legislation.
Project funding is a mix of toll charges and central government grants
The majority of funding for the Mersey Gateway Project has and will continue to come from toll charges paid by people who use the bridges. The remainder comes from the Department for Transport (DfT), which provides tens of millions of pounds of funding for the project every year. Without this subsidy from Government, the project would make a significant annual loss.
The increase in toll charges earlier this year was the first in seven and a half years since the Mersey Gateway Bridge opened. Toll charges have increased by significantly less than the cumulative RPI inflation rate since the bridge opened – which has already reached 40%.
In order to fund the project over its lifetime, it was always expected that toll charges would need to increase annually in line with inflation, but Halton Borough Council has been able to defer annual increases to minimise costs to motorists.
The next projected toll charge increase is scheduled for April 2028, by which time toll charges would have increased just once in the first ten and a half years of the project operation. Mike Bennett, Managing Director of the Mersey Gateway Crossings Board, said “We’ve committed to publishing this income and expenditure data annually, and we will continue to do so every year. What we can see here is a small rise in both project revenue and operating costs which is in line with expectations and shows the need for quicker, easier more reliable crossings over the Mersey in Halton is as important as ever for our regional economy.”
See our project finances page for more background information: www.merseygateway.co.uk/finances.