Today (24 March 2025) I am announcing 2 key measures to boost funding for transport as part of the government’s commitment to renew national infrastructure, improve England’s road network and drive growth as part of the Plan for Change.
First, I am setting out the details of what local highway authorities across England will need to do to unlock their full share of the £500 million funding uplift that the government has announced for the 2025 to 2026 financial year. This will help ensure that every penny of taxpayer funding for road repairs is delivering results and will help tackle the pothole plague that is the result of a decade of underinvestment by the previous government.
For the first time ever, local highway authorities will have to publish a succinct report in plain English by the end of June detailing what they are doing to improve the state of their local roads. This will shine a spotlight on what councils are doing with taxpayers’ money and allow local people to hold their councils to account. It will help ensure that the additional funding provided by my department will be spent delivering the improvements that local people have every right to expect.
The department has provided a template for these reports, which sets out the information that is required. Each authority will need to explain how much it is spending on highway maintenance and how this has changed over time. Authorities will also need to give 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, as well as what they are doing to shift their focus to long-term preventative maintenance. They will need to explain what they are doing to minimise the disruption caused by utility companies’ streetworks and to make their highway networks more resilient to the changing climate.
Local highway authorities will also be required to send some further, more technical information to the department by the end of October. This will summarise what each authority is doing to follow best practice and deliver innovation and efficiency. Authorities will have to provide information on matters such as whether or not they carry out customer satisfaction surveys to allow the public to have a say on local priorities; and whether they benchmark their performance with other authorities.
Authorities that comply in full with the requirements will receive their full share of the £500 million funding uplift, which for most authorities will mean an increase of almost 40% on average in highway maintenance funding compared to the current financial year. Authorities that do not meet these requirements will forfeit the final 25% of the funding uplift, with this money then redistributed to other councils to allow them to do even more to fix their local roads. Second, I am providing details of a £4.8 billion interim settlement for National Highways in 2025 to 2026 to keep the strategic road network working for the people and businesses that rely on it every day.
Delivery of this investment focuses heavily on operating, maintaining, and enhancing the strategic network. Crucially, there is also a record investment in renewals, essential to keeping this vital network in good repair to avoid unplanned disruption, drive productivity and better connect people and business to support growth across the country.
The current Road Investment Strategy (RIS) expires at the end of March 2025, and we intend to set a new multi-year strategy. But this requires time to plan and the choices we make in that strategy will be informed by this year’s Spending Review.
In the absence of a RIS, I am laying in Parliament statutory directions and guidance to National Highways to cover the exercise of its functions beyond the expiry of the second Road Investment Strategy, from 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026 inclusive.
