Reports suggest that a series of local roads maintenance cash pots totalling £8.3bn for English regions, announced in the wake of the cancellation of HS2’s Manchester leg, will cover the next 10 years.
The Telegraph has reported that the cash will be pumped into local road maintenance budgets over the next 10 years, with funding set to be released on an annual basis as early as April, with tranches increasing over time to help build up supply chains.
Officials have called it the ‘largest allocation for local roads maintenance ever’.
While the Government described the money as ‘additional’ cash and part of an ‘unprecedented new nationwide road resurfacing scheme’, there is no fixed amount of roads cash on an annual basis.
In the October 2021 Spending Review, the Department for Transport (DfT) committed over £2.7bn of local highways maintenance funding between 2022 and 2025.
This represented a large cut from previous years, with funding falling from £4bn in 2006, to £2bn in 2019 in England, according to the Local Government Association.
The Treasury told Highways that local roads investment for the next five years will be set out at next year’s Spending Review, although it has not had confirmed if this constitutes a five-year funding settlement from Department for Transport money.
Last week, prime minister Rishi Sunak announced roads funding for the regions, which includes £3.3bn for councils in the North of England, £2.2bn for Midlands authorities, and £2.8bn to the South East, South West, and East of England.
The Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA) has said the cash could be a ‘game changer’ but warned that it would need to be ring-fenced for road maintenance, and said councils should not have to bid for the cash.
A DfT spokesman told the Telegraph that the money was being given on top of the nearly £1bn it already provided on average every year.
He said: ‘We are investing a record amount of funding into tackling potholes, which will see highway maintenance funding to local authorities almost doubled over the next decade.’
