BREP delay: what the county says about penalties

Worcestershire County Council has set out, in a letter to Bromsgrove’s MP, why the second delay to the A38 works may not produce an automatic penalty for the contractor.

The letter is dated 14 August and signed by Councillor Tom Wells, the cabinet member with responsibility for highways and transport. Bradley Thomas MP had written on 3 August asking what penalties the contractor would face, how much the delay has cost and who would pay.

The reply names the contract terms:

• The scheme runs under an NEC4 Engineering and Construction Contract.
• Delay damages are provided for through Option X7, but “these are only applied should the delay be longer than the end date in the latest accepted programme”, which the letter says is “very often not ‘contractor’s fault’”.
• The contract uses target pricing. If actual costs exceed the target price by up to 10 per cent, the contractor is responsible for 50 per cent of the overspend. Above 10 per cent, the contractor is responsible for all the additional costs.
• Spending to date is “approximately £35 million” against an approved budget of £49.7 million.

The council’s published figure is more precise. Its phase 3 page gives total funding of £49,698,512 and spend to the end of July 2026 of £34,666,977.

Why the programme moved

Cllr Wells gives one principal cause: “the discovery of numerous uncharted utilities across the route, particularly Cadent gas apparatus”. Allowances for utility diversions were in both the programme and the budget, he writes, but the scale and complexity of what was found required changes to construction sequencing, temporary pauses and extended coordination with the asset owners.

Where an unknown utility turns up, the letter says, work often pauses while investigations are done and agreements are reached, and the diversion is frequently carried out by the utility company itself before highway work can resume. Those activities are “generally outside the direct control of the contractor”, which is the point on which the penalty question turns.

The dates, and how they have moved

According to the MP, residents and businesses were first told BREP would be finished by December 2025 or early 2026, then December 2026, and the county has now said spring 2027.

The council’s own documents show the same gap. Its phase 3 page, updated in July 2026, says “some activities associated with Phase 3 will continue into Spring 2027”. Its separate BREP frequently asked questions page still gives an end date of the end of 2026.

September is now clear of BREP closures

One consequence of the revised programme is already visible in the council’s own works table, and it has not been announced.

When we checked that table on 20 August it advertised weeknight closures on the A38 between the Oakalls and Slideslow roundabouts from 21 September, and further closures on Stoke Road from 5 October. Checked again on 27 August, the table shows nothing at all between 30 August and 27 September. The next entry is the A38 south of Oakalls, from 28 September to 2 October, marked proposed and to be confirmed.

The letter appears to explain why. On other highway works in Bromsgrove, Cllr Wells writes that “the implications of the revised BREP programme on future works are currently being assessed, and further information will be provided once that review has been completed”.

What the council told the BBC

The county published its full statement to the BBC on 13 August, after the broadcaster began covering the scheme. It is franker than the works table.

The statement says the council recognises “the very real impact” of the programme and understands the frustration. It repeats the utilities explanation, and adds an admission on communication: “we recognise that there is an opportunity for communication with residents and businesses to improve”, with a commitment that where circumstances change, “we want residents to hear that clearly and promptly from the Council rather than being left uncertain about what is happening”.

It also ties the roadworks to the housing debate directly. The improvements were designed, it says, to provide “the additional highway capacity required to accommodate the significant planned housing and economic growth around Bromsgrove as set out in the adopted local plan”, with £5.22 million of the funding coming from section 106 contributions on developments “led by the district council”.

The MP’s response

Bradley Thomas called the reply on penalties “lacklustre” on 19 August, and said the cabinet member had not taken up an invitation to visit Regents Park Road and meet residents.

Two days later he published the fact that he had written to the Transport Secretary, Heidi Alexander, asking her to instruct National Highways to “review this scheme and administer it to completion”. He said he had lost confidence in the county council’s ability to deliver the project and that it “lacks the expertise to deliver a scheme of this importance”.

Handing a local authority scheme to National Highways would be unusual. The A38 through Bromsgrove is a local highway, not part of the strategic road network, which is why the county council is the authority delivering it.

What it means for you

• No penalty has been announced, and none may follow automatically. On the council’s account, delay damages depend on the latest accepted programme, and the utility problems it blames are not treated as the contractor’s fault.
• The cost control that does bite is the target price. If the job runs more than 10 per cent over, the contractor carries everything above that line.
• Do not plan around the old September dates. The BREP table is currently empty from 30 August to 27 September. Our Bromsgrove roadworks page is updated with what is actually shut.
• The next scheduled update is October 2026, when the council has promised its next programme review.

Sources

• Letter from Cllr Tom Wells to Bradley Thomas MP, 14 August 2026 for the NEC4 contract terms, Option X7, the target price shares, the Cadent gas apparatus finding, the approximately £35 million spend and the review of future works.
• Worcestershire County Council, full statement provided to the BBC on BREP, 13 August 2026 for the funding breakdown, the local plan justification and the communication commitment.
• Worcestershire County Council, Phase 3 of A38 BREP improvements for the £49,698,512 total, the £34,666,977 spend to the end of July 2026 and the spring 2027 statement.
• Worcestershire County Council, BREP frequently asked questions for the end of 2026 completion date still published.
• Worcestershire County Council, latest news and progress on the A38 Bromsgrove improvements for the upcoming works table as published on 27 August 2026.
• Bradley Thomas MP, on the cabinet member’s response, 19 August 2026 and on his letter to the Transport Secretary, 21 August 2026 for his quotes and the sequence of completion dates.