Towards the end of last year the Government announced that it was providing £8.3 billion of extra roads resurfacing funding for local highway authorities in England between 2023/24 to 2033/34. This money comes from savings delivered following the Prime Minister’s decision to cancel Phase 2 of HS2.
The money will be given to the local highways authority to allocate across its area. In the Henley and Thame constituency this is Oxfordshire County Council. I have now been given details of the expected local funding which amounts to a total indicative additional funding allocation 2023/24 to 2033/34 of £82,340,000
This is made up as follows:
- £2,629,000 - Funding increase for 2023/24 made possible by reallocated HS2 funding
- £3,706,000 - Funding increase for 2023/24 announced at Spring Budget 2023
- £27,181,000 - 2023/24 total funding including baseline set at SR21
- 2023/24 approx 30% increase on 2022/23
John said: “This is a significant investment and excellent news. I receive many complaints from constituents about the condition of our roads and I cannot deny that they are dreadful. I am pleased too that the Government is asking for details of how this money will be spent and will be looking to see that our rural areas will be allocated their fair share of the funding.”
To increase transparency local authorities will be required to publish information on their websites on a regular basis explaining how they are spending the funding in their area.
- by 15 March 2024 a summary of the additional resurfacing work they will deliver with the new funding over the next 2 years;
- thereafter quarterly reports, with the first by the end of June 2024, summarising the additional work they have done and listing the roads that they have resurfaced; and
- later in 2024/25 a long-term plan for their use of the full 11-year funding and the transformation it will deliver.
This builds on regulations announced in April last year to crack down on utility companies causing pothole pain with botched streetworks, through stricter inspections and costs for the worst offenders – backed by further measures in our Plan for drivers announced just last month.
The reallocation of HS2 funding has been fairly redistributed with every penny committed to the Northern leg will go to the North, every penny committed to the Midlands leg to the Midlands, and every penny saved from our new arrangement for Euston station will be spread across every other region in the country.
