Today has seen the release of the Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance (ALARM) survey report. This provides the latest insight into the funding and conditions of the local highway network (LHN) in England and Wales.

Sue Percy CBE, Chief Executive, CIHT said:

“Everyone depends on the UK’s network of local highways; they are at the heart of our communities and these arteries of our country need to be invested in to ensure fitness to compete in the global economy. Despite the efforts of central and local government, the LHN is not in a good state and not up to the job of supporting the country’s ambitions for the future.”

“Changing weather events are having a major impact on the effectiveness of transport networks. We must develop a more resilient network through future proofing projects and maintenance activities. This will increase reliability for people’s travel  and goods deliveries particularly as we face more extreme and varying climate events including flooding, high temperatures, severe weather and storms.” 

“Maintenance of our existing highways and infrastructure assets is a key priority to ensure the efficient use of our transport network. Addressing this (of which fixing potholes  is the tip of the iceberg) will require transport resilience assessments being made a statutory requirement for all transport asset owners to ensure the identification, prioritisation and ownership of vulnerable areas. CIHT believes that once identified, a dedicated fund should be established to support the mitigation of such vulnerable areas.”     

About the report

This year marks the 29th successive ALARM survey and the contents highlight the scale of the challenge ahead. ALARM estimate that more than £16 billion is now needed to tackle the backlog of carriageway repairs in England and Wales and both structural and surface conditions have continued to decline.

Overall, local authorities reported they had a bit more money to spend this year but the impact of rising costs due to inflation means they are reporting that they have been able to do less with it. Combined with the effects of the extreme weather we are increasingly facing, and the result is that the rate at which local roads are suffering is accelerating towards breaking point.

The full report (and those from previous years) can be downloaded at: https://www.asphaltuk.org/alarm-survey-page/

Improving Local Highways

CIHT previously commissioned the 'Improving Local Highways' report that outlined how the highway network can support the delivery of a carbon-neutral system, create sustainable, green, resilient, and accessible places, make transport healthier, and help the economy grow.

The full report and supporting research is available here.