CIHT welcomes the government's commitment to providing investment to ensure local roads are well maintained.  The local road network is a crucial component of the national infrastructure. 

CIHT has consistently called for investment to enable local highway authorities to ensure their networks are in good condition:  estimates indicate that approximately £12 billion is required to enhance the condition of local roads. 

While the current government's commitment is a positive step there is still a need for a local roads investment strategy.  Any highway investment must include a focus on the vital role played by local roads. A government needs to provide clear, long-term aims on how we will use the transport network and support this with a long-term approach (at least over 10 - 20 years) to   investments.  As a minimum, CIHT calls for a 5-year commitment for local roads maintenance/renewal funding (a road investment strategy RIS for local roads). This enables local highway authorities to enable longer-term procurement, supporting decarbonisation, improving maintenance interventions and making transport networks more resilient.

While we welcome the recent government announcement, CIHT considers that this does not fully address the funding requirements. With ageing infrastructure and the challenges for climate adaptation with more extreme weather there is a need for sustained long-term investment.  Without a new strategy, the Local Highway Network (LHN) may struggle to facilitate business growth, enhance productivity, seize economic opportunities, and meet the nation's needs for a sustainable future.

CIHT believes that through the recommendations outlined in ‘Improving Local Highways’, we can show how the highway network will support the delivery of a carbon-neutral system, create sustainable, green, resilient, and accessible places, make transport healthier, and help the economy grow. 

CIHT specifically calls for a commitment to establishing an inflation-linked local highways fund:

•    Establish a 10-year additional funding settlement (should be additional to the current annual capital and revenue funding that local authorities receive for highway maintenance) of £15 billion TOTEX to address the maintenance backlog
•    Agree a 10-year local highways fund - leading to improved efficiencies and effectiveness in the management and maintenance of the LHN, including incentivisation to deliver wider outcomes for people and society (would allow maintenance to facilitate active travel, supporting the decarbonisation agenda whilst improving peoples’ health)
•    Allocate an initial £7.5 billion from the fund for the first five years, distributed to local authorities on a yearly increasing basis as a new national asset conditions dataset is introduced
•    Allocate a further £7.5 billion from the fund for the second five-year period, with distribution taking account of local authority performance, asset conditions, road function and increasing length.

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