(Or at least what was written in his script). Owl was struck at the time by the reference to a truly national ambition to improve strategic highways in the South West – particularly the A417. 

Owl has found out that the A417 runs between Gloucester, Cirencester and Swindon and is used by many motorists travelling between London and the West Midlands as a shortcut between the M4 and the M5.

Technically, the Chancellor is correct.  Gloucester and Wiltshire are in the region of the South West but Owl thinks their “regional inequality” doesn’t compare to ours. The worry is he, and all his Whitehall chums, no doubt thinks they really have got inequality “done”. 

A mis-perception the Great South West could usefully work on?  

https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/budget-speech-2020

And there’s more money for our roads too.

Today, I’m announcing the biggest ever investment in strategic roads and motorway – over £27bn of tarmac.

That will pay for work on over 20 connections to ports and airports, over 100 junctions, 4,000 miles of road.

I’m announcing new investment in local roads, alongside a new £2.5bn pothole fund – that’s £500m every single year; enough to fill, by the end of the Parliament, 50 million potholes.

The details of all the road schemes I’m funding will be published later today – and I thank my RHF the Transport Secretary for his efforts.

Our ambition is truly national.

The A417 in the South West.

The A428 in the East.

The A46 in the Midlands.

Unclogging Manchester’s arteries.

Freeing the traffic north of Newcastle.

And, something my North and Mid Wales colleagues will be particularly pleased to hear…

…we’re protecting beautiful villages in the Welsh Borders, as we finally build the Pant-Llanymynech bypass.

We promised to get Britain moving – and we’re getting it done.

And there’s one more road I want to mention.

It’s one of our most important regional arteries.

It is one of those totemic projects symbolising delay and obstruction.

Governments have been trying to fix it since the 1980s.

Every year, millions of cars crawl along it in traffic.

Ruining the backdrop to one of our most important historic landmarks.

To the many H & RHMs who have campaigned for this moment – I say this:

The A303 – this government’s going to get it done.