Most of us would guess that road travel is the country’s most-used form of transport, but it’s worth taking a step back and looking at the data to understand the scale of their importance. In Great Britain, data from the Department for Transport show that 9 in 10 kilometres that someone travels are by road.
While England’s motorways and major A-roads, the strategic road network (SRN), represent just part of this overall number, analysis by Cambridge Econometrics shows that sectors reliant on the SRN represent 7.6 million jobs and an estimated £410bn of Gross Value Added annually to the economy.
So we all have a stake in how the SRN is operated, and all of us benefit when it is well maintained, efficient, and supports economic growth. What many road users may not know, is that how the SRN is managed underwent a transformation ten years ago.
For a decade now, the Office of Rail and Road (ORR), alongside Transport Focus, National Highways, and the Department for Transport, has been working for better highways. That’s because in 2015, the way the SRN is funded and held to account changed significantly. The 2015 Infrastructure Act ushered in:
- A Strategic Highways Company (called National Highways since 2021) to manage, operate and improve England’s SRN;
- Multi-year Road Investment Strategies (RIS) set by government;
- A Watchdog (Transport Focus), to champion the needs of road users; and
- A Monitor (ORR) with regulatory powers to hold National Highways to account.
The RIS process allows greater certainty for the industry and supply chain through longer funding cycles, and consistent timeframes for planned investment. ORR holds National Highways to account to deliver the RIS and comply with its statutory directions and guidance, which includes its licence, up to and including enforcement action, if necessary.
Our approach
Over the last decade, we’ve worked to constructively challenge and hold National Highways to account in a way that is transparent, proportionate and consistent. Road users, communities and taxpayers have benefited.
Certainty and long term funding have given National Highways the ability to plan for the long term around operations, maintenance and renewals. The certainty gives it greater opportunity to plan and prioritise it resources. It can commit to long term works that cross years, minimising patching replacement and boosting innovation in the supply chain. This is vital, as the network – that saw a boom of construction in the 1970s – is at the point where significant interventions are needed that do not lend themselves to the restriction of annual settlements.
Here are just a few examples of ORR’s work:
- Held National Highways to account to deliver a total of over £3.2 billion in efficiency savings;
- Challenged National Highways to improve and implement its safety plans – the number of people harmed on the network has significantly decreased on an annual basis, by 39% compared to the 2005-2009 average;
- Pushed National Highways to improve its plans for biodiversity – the company has now achieved a net gain for biodiversity units after previously having forecasted a decrease; and
- Advised government on the long-term impacts of funding settlements, ensuring that what National Highways is asked to deliver for the funding available is challenging and deliverable. This included scrutinising and supporting the development of the 2025-26 interim funding settlement.
More broadly, we seek to take an outcomes-focused, risk-based approach. By identifying risks early and working with National Highways to resolve them before they crystalise into issues that have negative impacts on road users, we support the resilience of the SRN. This resilience, in turn, means the businesses that drive economic growth can rely on the SRN today and in the future.
We also do not hesitate to take further action if necessary – as we did in 2024, when we launched an investigation into the company’s performance and delivery. This resulted in a comprehensive improvement plan from the company and material improvements to its decision making, evidencing and transparency – all of which ultimately result in better outcomes for users.
The road ahead
As it has over the last decade, our approach to holding National Highways to account will continue to evolve. We support the government’s drive for economic growth and are checking and challenging ourselves to ensure that our regulatory approach is accountable, proportionate and consistent, and that we are targeting our activities only at cases where it is needed.
We are also looking ahead to the next road period, advising the Department for Transport on plans for RIS3 and providing independent challenge and assurance that government priorities are deliverable with the funds available, and on where there is room for National Highways to improve.
We’re also working to increase transparency to the public by publishing data on National Highways’ performance in dashboards on orr.gov.uk. We will continue to develop these dashboards so that road users, communities and taxpayers can have greater insight into how the SRN is working for them.
To learn more about the work of the roads team at ORR, visit our holding to account page.
