CIHT is calling on the Chancellor to set out a five year funding plan for local roads and to increase to 10 years the funding certainty for strategic highways in next month's Budget.

Chief Executive Sue Percy wrote to HM Treasury on Friday setting out the need to continue to invest in transportation infrastructure and is due to give further detail to CIHT Council today (Wednesday).

Increasing the certainty of funding for local roads to five years would help to address continued pressures on revenue and capital budgets faced by local highway authorities, CIHT says.

It adds that local roads – along with strategic roads and the rail network – could benefit from the introduction of a 10 year funding horizon.

Other key recommendations made by CIHT to the Chancellor include making it a statutory requirement to carry out transport resilience assessments in order to identify the UK's vulnerable assets. Government should also ensure sufficient revenue funding to ensure highway drainage is adequately maintained, it says.

On the subject of road safety CIHT calls for the return of local safety targets and in terms of training the Institution calls for all Government contracts to have targets for the number of apprenticeships it creates.

In her letter to HM Treasury Sue Percy adds: “CIHT has long called for a National Transport Strategy to provide clear direction and clarification for UK transport policy as we believe that this would create a more effective and co-ordinated use of funding allocated to transport infrastructure.”