The M6 toll road was privately financed, built, and is now operated by Midland Expressway Ltd (MEL) under a concession agreement signed by the then Secretary of State for Transport in 1992.

Having borne all the financial and development risk associated with the construction of the £900 million M6 toll, Macquarie Infrastructure Group (MIG)—the owners of MEL—are proposing to refinance MEL's debt, recognising the revised risk MEL now bears as operator of the road, which has been open to traffic since December 2003.

I am pleased to record that MIG have agreed to fund £112 million of road improvements in the West Midlands from their total refinancing resources.

This re-investment will fund improvements to the slip road access from the M42 to the southern end of the M6 toll, and will cover the costs of construction, operation and maintenance of a new road from the M54 and Telford to the M6 and the M6 toll.

The need for this link was identified in the west midlands area multi-modal study (WMAMMS), to improve access to and from the M54 corridor and Telford, and the Highways Agency has been undertaking detailed work with a view to developing a scheme for entry to the targeted programme of improvements.

The new road should open to traffic around 2012 (subject to the usual statutory processes), helping to free up current bottlenecks and to improve road travel through the region.