Secretary of State for Transport (): I wish to update the
House on the government's work to improve the condition of local
roads and the steps we are taking to ensure that record levels of
investment deliver real benefits for communities.
The government is committed to tackling the poor state of our
roads. This financial year, we have provided an additional £500
million for local highways maintenance and have at the Autumn
Budget, confirmed a record investment of £7.3 billion for the
next four years, covering the period of 2026 and 2027 to 2029 and
2030. This funding increase and the provision of long-term
funding certainty are designed to enable local authorities to
invest in significantly improving the long-term condition of
England's roads and local highways network, delivering safer and
more reliable journeys.
To ensure increases in funding drive improvements, we now require
local highway authorities to publish transparency reports setting
out their maintenance plans. These reports allow residents and
taxpayers to see how funding is being used and help us monitor
progress. The first reports were published in June 2025.
Based on our assessments of these reports, my department
yesterday published red, amber, green
(RAG) ratings for each
local highway authority, assessing the quality of local roads
and progress against key aspects of local highways management.
These overall ratings are supported by 3 underlying scorecards,
measuring local road condition, the level of capital spend on
highways maintenance and the extent to which local authorities
have adopted best practice in highways management.
The aim of these ratings is to provide an evidence-based picture
of local highways maintenance practices and outcomes to support
improvements across the sector. They are designed to recognise
and highlight good practice – for example, in relation to
preventative maintenance, so that potholes do not form in the
first place – while also helping the department to identify where
local authorities need to improve and where more targeted support
to local authorities may help them adopt best practice and
improve road condition nationwide.
We recognise that historic underfunding has meant that local
authorities have not necessarily had the resources or tools
available to maintain roads in the way that they would want to.
So a lower rating does not necessarily reflect a lack of local
ambition. Where authorities face particular challenges, we will
offer targeted support, including peer reviews by sector experts.
This is alongside wider resources such as the Live Labs 2
highways innovation programme, which we have extended into 2026
to 2027 to enable further uptake of the programme's findings and
our update of the Code of Practice for Well-Managed Highways,
which will be published later this year.
These ratings will be updated annually, and so over time, will
provide evidence of the impact of the government's increased and
long-term investment into local highways and of local
authorities' efforts in maintaining their networks.
These measures – increased and long-term funding certainty,
improved evidence of local progress through our ratings and more
targeted support to local authorities – are intended to work
together. They are part of this government's plan to improve the
condition of our local roads and highways, ensuring that
communities can benefit from safer, smoother and more reliable
journeys.
