Residents in the North East are anxiously awaiting news on plans to dual the A1 north of Morpeth in the looming Budget.

The previous Government finally gave the project the green light just before the General Election following a series of delays. However, following Labour’s landslide victory in July, Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced a review of a range of “unfunded” transport projects.

The new Government has yet to commit to the plan to create 13 miles of dual carriageway between Morpeth and Ellingham. However, local leaders are anticipating an announcement in Wednesday’s Budget.

Coun Richard Wearmouth, the deputy leader of Northumberland County Council (NCC), said: “I live in hope. Our feeling was HS2 was cancelled and there was money put aside for projects including the Blyth Relief Road and the A1.

“It is not MPs and the chancellor that pull these things together, it is the civil service. That funding was in the process of being allocated.

“The Chancellor’s new fiscal rules leave her with more money to put into projects, so if we don’t get it we will be very surprised. It is well on its way to delivery, it just needs money to finish it – we just need to get on with it, there’s clearly money around somewhere.

“When it comes to investment in projects like the A1 dualling and Blyth Relief Road, Labour have been busy pretending there are no funds. Rishi Sunak however had cancelled HS2 and was reassigning money to exactly these projects. So if these projects end up cancelled the buck stops with Keir Starmer, simple as that.

“We of course very much hope these projects do survive the Budget process. We have made the case strongly and NCC will continue to support our local MPs where we can to secure as much funding for our county as we are able.”

Ms Reeves has unveiled new fiscal rules ahead of the Budget that will alter restrictions around borrowing and debt, allowing the reversal of a planned £20bn spending cut on major capital projects.

However, not everyone in the county is optimistic. Coun Isabel Hunter, who represents the Berwick West with Ord ward, has long campaigned for the road to be dualled all the way up to the town on the Scottish border. She said she had “no faith” that the project would be delivered in the Budget.

She said: “I think it will get scrapped. I’m just very, very concerned it will go – we’re too far north here.

“For me it’s the safety reasons – I’m not pushing for this just to save a few minutes. People are taking chances when they’re stuck behind slow moving vehicles or farm traffic.

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“We just need something done. I won’t believe it until there’s diggers on the site and spades in the ground.

“I do think it will be pulled – it’s just another thing we’re going to be hit with. I have no faith it will be done.”

The Treasury have been contacted for comment.