Funding for road maintenance from Government needs to become more predictable to prevent public value being lost in the long term according to a report by the National Audit Office (NAO).

The report, entitled ‘Maintaining strategic infrastructure: roads’, said the current pattern of funding combined with the need to spend money within the financial year means that most road maintenance is carried out between September and March.

It added that although working over these winter months is less disruptive for road users, daylight hours are shorter and materials can be more difficult to handle in cold and wet conditions, reducing efficiency.

A statement from chair of the Committee of Public Accounts Margaret Hodge MP said: “Since 2010, additional funding has been announced 10 separate times, clearly showing that the Department for Transport (DfT) has no long term funding plan to make sure the road network runs properly.”

But a DfT spokesman said: “The reformed Highways Agency will be more transparent, accountable and able to provide stable funding over longer periods to drive down costs and increase efficiency.”

NAO says that road maintenance contractors have cited unpredictable income as a disincentive for them to invest in improving efficiency.

CIHT Director of Policy and Technical Affairs Andrew Hugill said: “We have consistently called for a need for certainty, and continuity of investment over a sustained period if overall improvements to the transport network are to be delivered effectively and efficiently.”

Institution of Civil Engineers director general Nick Baveystock said: “Pressure on local authority budgets and a significant maintenance backlog has created a reactive ‘quick fix’ culture that is more costly in the long term.

“Efforts to clear the backlog and learn lessons from schemes proving successful must be stepped up,” he added.

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