The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) plans to increase its scrutiny of future funding for the strategic road network as plans are drawn up for the third road investment strategy (RIS 3).
The move follows a £3.4bn cut in RIS 2 funding in October’s Budget, which the Government said reflected delays to major projects, with spending moved into the third Roads Period.
National Highways’ monitor has set out its proposed approach in a consultation on the development of RIS 3 and how it will assess its efficiency and deliverability, which it said will ensure that it provides high-quality advice on the setting of the RIS to the transport secretary on what can be expected to be achieved with the funding identified.
In the consultation document the ORR emphasises that its role is not to set roads policy or determine investment priorities but to ‘advise government on the extent to which plans for the next road period achieve the right balance of being challenging and deliverable’.
Funding for the Lower Thames Crossing has moved into the RIS 3 budget
ORR chief executive John Larkinson said: ‘ORR plays an important role in the development of road investment strategies, working across the industry to ensure a range of views are considered to provide advice to the secretary of state for transport.
‘Taking on the views across industry strengthens our assessments and our proposed approach to evaluating the challenge and deliverability of the next RIS, ensuring ORR’s oversight and scrutiny leads to better outcomes for road users, the environment and taxpayers.’
The ORR said its proposals include a greater focus on the quality of National Highways' plans for how it will maintain and renew the road network for users and how it will meet the challenge of an ageing network.
It added that it also wants National Highways to pay particular attention to ensuring that the efficiencies achieved in the first two road periods are reflected in its cost estimates and that it proposes to increase its scrutiny of how risks to the delivery of road improvement projects are assessed.
The ORR said its proposals reflect the need for the RIS development process to provide a clearly defined baseline of what road users can expect from the strategic road network, and against which it can monitor National Highways’ performance and efficiency in the third road period.
Earlier this month, the Department for Transport set out the process to prepare and plan for RIS3.
The consultation runs until 28 January 2022.
Source: ORR
