Transport secretary Louise Haigh has said multi-year funding for local roads is crucial to her plans and raised the prospect of more 'light touch' accountability around the cash.
She has also confirmed the £500m giveaway for 2025-2026 is only an annual settlement but more funding boosts for local road maintenance could come in the Spending Review next spring.
Appearing before the transport select committee, Louise Haigh was asked by Labour MP Scott Arthur what impact she thought could be made on potholes, given the state of local government funding.
She replied: ‘It is a really significant commitment in this budget for 25-26 and as I say, well beyond where our manifesto commitment left us, to fix and repair up to a million potholes per year.
‘That is just for 25-26 and the ambition for the second phase of the spending review is for similarly ambitious levels of funding, but crucially for multi-year funding settlements.
‘The current annualised settlement for local authorities means that we can’t do the prevention work and the planning that is so patently required to fix the crumbling state of our local roads and we know that that prevention work is so much more efficient than patching and repairs.'
She added: ‘Being able to provide that multi-year settlement at the spending review will be absolutely crucial, but what we are trying to work through now as we get to 25-26 is a way to ensure that funding is absolutely directed and spent on highway maintenance because there is obviously a risk and a balance with devolution that money goes out the door that is intended for potholes and road maintenance.
‘So we are just trying to find the most light-touch way that we can ensure accountability around that funding.'
This appears to suggest that the DfT will stop short of ringfencing the cash. In previous years, a self-assessment process, with attached funding for high performers, has been employed to provide an incentive for councils to raise standards.
Department for Transport permanent secretary Dame Bernadette Kelly added: ‘Local road maintenance is for local authorities, but the question is, how can we best support them in identifying best practice in the efficient maintenance of their roads.’
Labour still parking issues
Ms Haigh was unable to give clear answers on how the Labour government elected in July would address a number of issues that it inherited from the previous administration.
Dr Arthur reminded her that a consultation on pavement parking had concluded four years ago – in November 2020 – and that local authorities in Scotland and Wales have powers to tackle the issue.
She responded: ‘I completely recognise how important it is for accessibility. We’re considering what options we have available because we want to make sure that any measures are not burdensome on local authorities and are done in the most effective way.
‘I will write to the committee in the coming months as we respond to the consultation.’
Ms Haigh also acknowledged that it was ‘not good enough’ that trials of rental e-scooters have been ongoing in areas across the country with no sign of a conclusion or legislation.
She said: ‘We’ve not got parliamentary time in this session, or a relevant bill that could be used to legislate e-scooters, but we will look to legislate, absolutely; it is clearly required and again it’s not good enough that it’s been left in this situation for too long.’
She was also asked by Conservative MP Rebecca Smith when the ‘unprecedented levels’ of funding for active travel infrastructure to which she has previously referred would be available.
She said: ‘The initial direction was set in this first phase of the spending review when we reversed the cuts of the previous government to active travel and provided £100m of funding to Active Travel England.’
She added: ‘As we look to the second phase of the spending review, we will hope to again move to those multi-year settlements.’
Asked by Dr Arthur whether she plans to set up the road safety investigation branch that was put forward and then shelved by the previous government, she said: ‘That is one of the measures that is being considered as part of the [forthcoming] road safety strategy.'
