CIHT welcomes new measures announced by the Department for Transport aimed at ensuring highways funding is used as intended, strengthening accountability among local authorities.
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The Department for Transport (DfT) and the UK Government have today (14 April) announced that councils will face new rules on how they spend funding to fix potholes and maintain local roads to ensure taxpayers see real improvements.
Under the new measures, local highway authorities that fail to demonstrate they are maintaining roads effectively may be liable to losing approximately a third of their allocated funding for the next year.
The new measures are designed to ensure that allocated funding for highways maintenance is spent on fixing potholes and renewing the local highways network (LHN) and increasing transparency on performance.
More information on this announcement is available to read here.
This is aided by the DfT’s ‘Road Maintenance Ratings: Local Authority Map,’ detailing the performance of local authorities across England. The map grades 154 local highway authorities as red, amber, or green based on how effectively they are fixing potholes and investing in preventative measures to maintain their road network in the long term.
The Department for Transport’s ‘Road Maintenance Ratings: Local Authority Map’ is available to view here.
CIHT welcomes the announcement of new measures from the DfT. Ensuring that highways funding allocations are used as intended will help local authorities maintain a clear focus on delivering their responsibilities effectively and deliver visible results.
Councils must publish reports proving they are spending all their highways funding on road maintenance, showing long-term plans for looking after roads and better training for their highway’s teams.
Authorities that fail to deliver on the above criteria are liable to receive a red rating from the DfT. The ‘red’ rated local highways authorities will receive new dedicated support.
Each will be supported with a total of £300,000 worth of expert planning for over 2 years, designed to help councils raise standards, fix more roads, and deliver better results for road users.
The Department for Transport has also sent a letter to local highways authorities regarding local highways maintenance funding for 2026/27.
The letter is available to read here.
CIHT is delighted to see the Department for Transport calling for an increased focus on requiring a ‘demonstration of continued professional learning’ for local authorities on highways maintenance:
‘The 2026 to 2027 incentive fund requirements, therefore, include:
Publication of a highway’s maintenance transparency report for 2026 to 2027, reinforcing a culture of transparency and accountability, so that residents can see how funding is being spent and what outcomes are being achieved.
Spending at least the value of DfT’s highways maintenance funding on highways maintenance, ensuring this is the case in all, not just most, local highway authorities.
Publication of an updated highways asset management policy and strategy, ensuring maintenance plans consider whole-life cost and long-term outcomes rather than focusing on reactive approaches.
Demonstration of continued professional learning, including in relation to preventative maintenance in the thirty-eight authorities where no preventative road surface treatments were planned to be delivered in 2025 to 2026.’
CIHT looks forward to working with the Department for Transport, the UK Government, and local authorities across England to ensure the delivery of maintenance and renewal for one of the nation’s most critical infrastructure assets.
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