Transport Secretary, Rt Hon Heidi Alexander MP, set out the measures that local authorities must comply with to access increased maintenance funding
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In the Written Statement to Parliament, the Transport Secretary, Rt Hon Heidi Alexander MP, set out the measures that local authorities need to comply with to access the £500 million funding uplift for essential road maintenance and fix more of England’s potholes.
Local highway authorities will now have to publish a succinct report, by the end of June, detailing what they are doing to improve the state of their local highways network.
Each authority will need to explain:
How much it is spending on highway maintenance and how this has changed over time.
What they are doing to shift their focus to long-term preventative maintenance.
How they will minimise the disruption caused by utility companies’ street-works.
How they are making their highway networks more resilient to the changing climate.
Provide an overall picture of the condition of their roads, and a summary of how many potholes they have filled in each of the last 5 years
CIHT has consistently called for an enhanced emphasis on the resilience of the highways network , a shift towards longer term planning of highways maintenance, and to mitigate the impact of street works.
Compliant local authorities will see an increase of almost 40% on average in highway maintenance funding compared to the current financial year. Local authorities that do not meet these requirements will be liable to forfeit the final 25% of the funding uplift, with this money then redistributed to other compliant councils.
CIHT recognises that the government needs to demonstrate value for money when investing in local roads. While we welcome this announcement, the government also needs to ensure that funding encourages good asset management and long-term planning rather than short term reactive road maintenance.
It is essential to strike a balance that allows local authorities to provide necessary evidence while minimising the reporting burden on them.
CIHT believes that utilising advancements in technology, particularly AI, will help the sector be equipped to provide measurable, comparable and consistent data both at a local level and to the Department for Transport in a way that gives the government and the public confidence that taxpayers money is being invested well.
The full written statement to Parliament is available to read here.
CIHT looks forward to continuing to work with the Department for Transport and the government on providing maintenance and enhancements to the local highways networks, whilst working to create a transport network that is fit for all our futures.
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