High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Roads for Prosperity (often incorrectly called Road to Prosperity) was a controversial white paper published by the Conservative UK Government in 1989 detailing the `largest road building program for the UK since the Romans` produced in response to rapid increases in car ownership and use over the previous decade. It embraced what Margaret Thatcher had described as `the great car economy` although implementation led to widespread road protests and many of the schemes contained within it were abandoned in 1996.