Government’s £6bn road repair fund may still leave holes

23 Dec 14
The government today outlined how it intends to allocate £6bn to tackle potholes and improve local roads in England between 2015 and 2012. However, the Local Government Association has warned that the funding may not be enough to meet needs.

By Judith Ugwumadu | 23 December 2014

The government today outlined how it intends to allocate £6bn to tackle potholes and improve local roads in England between 2015 and 2012. However, the Local Government Association has warned that the funding may not be enough to meet needs.  

Potholes

The government’s plans will see £976m spent each year, or enough to fix around 18 million potholes across the country, according to the Department for Transport. It added that this is the first time councils have been promised road repair funding over such a long period of time, which should help them to plan ahead and save money over the long term.

Transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin said that good quality roads are a vital asset to the country, arguing that the current government has ploughed £1bn more into local roads maintenance than was spent in the previous parliament.

The £6bn investment was originally announced more than a year ago, but today’s news detailing how the fund will be carved up. ‘The £6bn funding I am announcing today will put an end to short term fixes and will mean we have committed £10 billion between 2010 and 2021,’ McLoughlin said. ‘This huge investment is part of our long term economic plan to ensure we have a transport network fit for the 21st century.’

The DfT said it will allocate funding to local authorities based on local needs, so councils with larger highway networks will receive more money. Over £4.7bn will be shared between 115 councils, while a further £575m will be made available through a new challenge fund to help repair and maintain local highway infrastructure such as junctions, bridges and street lighting.

It was also announced today that £578m had been set aside for an incentive fund scheme, which from 2016 will start to reward councils who demonstrate they are delivering value for money in carrying out cost effective improvements.

Responding to the announcement, a spokesman for the Local Government Association said £6bn would not prove sufficient and that councils require an additional £800m a year to fix the country’s roads.

The spokesman said: ‘The LGA has long called for greater funding for roads maintenance so these allocations, originally announced in the June 2013 Spending Review to improve the network, are a positive step. However, there is still a very long way to go to bring the nation’s roads up to scratch.’

According to an LGA analysis, the £6bn funding equates to an extra £300m a year on top of the £700m councils were previously expecting. But the spokesman said even with this increase, councils will still face an £800m yearly shortfall.

‘While helpful, this new money does not bridge the overall funding gap, which is increasing year on year,’ the LGA spokesman said. ‘It would be more useful if the whole £6bn was given to councils to get on with the important job of fixing roads, rather than £1bn of it being tied up in Whitehall bureaucracy.’

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