Jesse Norman MP visits the APPG for Highways
- Monday July 23, 2018
Jesse Norman MP recently joined the All Party Parliamentary Group for Highways for its discussions on the maintenance of local roads and problems with the Apprenticeship Levy, the key points of which are outlined below and which were endorsed by the Group.
In summary:
- The focus was on underfunding of local roads, evidenced by the recent ALARM survey. This year the survey had responses from 61% of Local Authorities and, while there was acknowledgement that funding had increased in 2017, the state of the roads surveyed had still declined:
- 20% were near “end of life”
- An additional £556m per year was needed just to prevent the network from further declining; London’s roads were worst of all!
- £9.3Bn was required in order to get the network back into a good state
- 24,000 miles of local roads require maintenance in the next 12 months
- Authorities have a statutory obligation to maintain their networks to a “reasonable” standard: the issue was what “reasonable” meant in some cases
- The view is that these roads are fundamentally unsafe and the key point is that everyone uses them to access the major roads and almost all other services
- Potholes are high on the public agenda and are a local political issue
- There is proven economic gain by having good roads and every pound spent on them gains £2.2 in economic value.