£140m funding boost for roads hit by bad weather

An extra £140million is being made available by the government to help repair flood-damaged roads.

Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin made the announcement yesterday (9 March) as part of the government’s response to the damage done during one of the worst winters on record. Support for councils to fix the roads most damaged by severe weather will be increased by £36.5m, to £80million.

On top of this, following the exceptionally severe weather of recent months, an extra £103.5million is also being made available to all councils across England.

McLoughlin said: "Having the right infrastructure in place to support businesses and hard working people is a crucial part of our long-term economic plan. This extra money will help make a real difference to the millions of road users and local residents who rely on local roads, giving them safer and smoother journeys."

Councils have a responsibility to maintain local roads, but the exceptional weather has caused significant additional damage, increasing the amount of damage to the local road network. As the flood waters have receded and councils have been able to assess the impact, it is clear that the damage done has been particularly severe in certain areas.

This additional money will be allocated on a formula basis, and will be distributed to the majority of councils in England by the end of this week, to ensure that they can make use of it as soon as possible and complete works before the summer holidays.

In order to qualify for this extra funding, local authorities will be required to publish information on their websites by the end of August 2014 showing where this money has been spent.