Gridlock for drivers, bumper profits for the M25’s owners

Investors including a US hedge fund have made a record £64 million in profits from running the M25, despite regular traffic jams and weekend closures for maintenance.
GCM Grosvenor, a hedge fund based in Chicago, and Dalmore Capital, a shareholder in the Thames Tideway Tunnel “supersewer”, are among a clutch of investors in one of the UK’s biggest private finance initiative (PFI) contracts.
Called Connect Plus, the PFI was created 15 years ago to manage and operate the M25 on behalf of the state-owned National Highways, with the aim of delivering “safer, more reliable journeys” for drivers.
The company was given a 30-year concession, which began with overseeing construction work to widen stretches of the motorway and refurbish the Hatfield Tunnel in Hertfordshire.
The M25 is one of a number of UK “shadow toll” roads, with dedicated special-purpose vehicles being handed contracts to design, build, finance and operate roads.
Drivers do not pay directly for using the motorway, with the state footing the bill instead. Other “shadow tolls” include parts of the M1 and A1, as well as the A69 between Carlisle and Newcastle.
Connect Plus was not responsible for the weekend closures of the M25 earlier this year, although the shutdowns will have had an impact on its revenues.
Payments to the PFI are calculated based on metrics including the number of cars on the road, the number of lane closures, speed of response to incidents, winter maintenance and even litter picking. Since starting in 2009, Connect Plus’s holding company has generated more than £340 million in pre-tax profits.
The M25 is the UK’s busiest road, carrying 15 per cent of the country’s total motorway traffic. It was closed on three occasions earlier this year for works at junction 10 at Wisley, Surrey — one of the motorway’s busiest sections.
The works will increase the number of lanes and are scheduled to cost more than £300 million. They are due to be completed in the summer of 2025.
A spokesman for Connect Plus declined to comment.