Stevenage's A1(M) bottlenecks could limit the medicines and space sector growth which Chancellor Jeremy Hunt promised in his Autumn Statement, a council leader has said.

The Hertfordshire town is home to the largest cell and gene therapy cluster outside of the USA, according to the government.

Mr Hunt told Parliament he would release £4.5billion in funding for strategic manufacturing from 2025 for five years – which includes the life sciences and aerospace industries.

But the leader of Stevenage Borough Council Richard Henry has told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that although the promise of economic growth is "welcome", roads and town centres need more investment from the Westminster government.

The Labour councillor said: "It's really good that the Autumn Statement will support STEM SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises in Sciences, Technology, Engineering, Maths) in Stevenage.

"I am pleased that is a focus but we are struggling as a council with ongoing pressures and there is nothing to help local government out.

"We will provide homes.

"We will continue to work across the council and with Hertfordshire County Council towards growth and new infrastructure.

"The government has offered some benefits to SMEs who work in our space sciences and development industries, but it doesn't really help us in trying to bring that all together in one place."

According to Airbus, which has its space headquarters in Stevenage, 25 per cent of the geo telecommunications satellites in orbit started their lives in Hertfordshire.

These include Copernicus Sentinel-5P, an eye-in-the-sky to monitor trace gases in the atmosphere which could affect the climate and people's health on the ground, and the Aeolus weather satellite.

"We have collaborated with brilliant industries and start-ups," Cllr Henry said.

The St Nicholas ward councillor added the borough council has worked with nearby colleges to promote women and girls in STEM.

"We have also been pushing for a proper motorway between Stevenage and other parts of the country," he said.

"We have two-lane bottlenecks north and south of the town but that seems to have fallen on deaf ears."

Motorways including the A1(M) are national infrastructure under the control of the Westminster government.

Stevenage Borough Council has embarked on a £1billion town "transformation" programme, which will span several years.

For 2023/24 and 2024/25, the authority has chosen to up the amount it spends on big projects by £447,000.

Some of this cash is the result of new grant funding, such as the government's £2.6bn UK Shared Prosperity Fund for "uplifts" at neighbourhood centres.

But others are the result of rising contractor costs, including an extra £11,472 to order new vehicles and £40,000 to meet the increased cost of permanent colour changes in lighting the Town Square Clock Tower.

The Conservative government's Autumn Statement commits HM Treasury to funding "connectivity within our towns, suburbs and cities".

The document claims the government will make savings of £36bn by scrapping parts of the HS2 high-speed rail project between London and Manchester.

Some of this cash will go towards "funding for hundreds of new local bus routes", new city transport deals for Newcastle, Liverpool, Manchester and Tees Valley, and strategic road projects.

In his speech to Parliament on Wednesday, November 22, Mr Hunt said: "British-discovered vaccines and treatments saved more lives across the world during the pandemic than those from any other country, and I am incredibly proud of our life sciences industry.

"To further support research and development, I am creating a new, simplified research and development (R&D) tax relief that combines the existing R&D expenditure credit and small and medium-sized enterprise schemes.

"I will also reduce the rate at which loss-making companies are taxed within the merged scheme from 25 per cent to 19 per cent, and lower the threshold for the additional support for R&D-intensive loss-making SMEs … which will benefit a further 5,000 SMEs."

Dr Sally Ann Forsyth, CEO of Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst, said: "The scale of investment in life sciences announced by the Chancellor demonstrates the importance of our sector to the UK economy.

"We welcome this raft of support from £20m secured for early-stage companies through to the £0.5bn to attract further investment in manufacturing.

"Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst has a vital part to play in this innovation pathway by providing the wraparound support to drive further development and deliver huge economic and health benefits for UK plc."

A spokesperson for GSK, whose R&D hub in Stevenage employs 2,500 people who help develop new medicines, said: "The UK has significant potential in life sciences and we are pleased that today's Autumn Statement recognises a number of opportunities for further growth.

"It is important that the UK continues to preserve its competitiveness and attractiveness for life sciences investment.

"We welcome the additional funding for compute power, which will support our work in AI, and for Our Future Health, which will bolster the UK's scientific strength.

"Continued support for innovation in the UK through funding for manufacturing capacity and further improvement to R&D tax credits are also welcome."

Jonathan Carr-West of the Local Government Information Unit (LGIU) said: "We are still a long way short of the strategic leadership needed for a sector that is essential to delivering economic growth, wellbeing, services and community cohesion."