PRESS RELEASE

Calls for urgent action to tackle road safety emergency

Transport Action Network (TAN) [1] is today calling on Ministers Heidi Alexander MP and Lilian Greenwood MP to focus the Department for Transport’s (DfT) highways funding allocation in the spending review [2] on addressing England’s road safety emergency.

Four people are killed and 68 seriously injured on England’s roads every day [3] – a casualty rate which would be seen as catastrophic and scandalous if it applied to air or train travel.

TAN has discovered:

The Lower Thames Crossing would increase collisions, causing 26 more fatalities and 182 serious injuries according to National Highways’ own modelling [4]

The £1.5bn A66 Northern Trans-Pennine will improve road safety on upgraded sections of the A66 but make it worse on the surrounding road network [5]

Only 0.5% of National Highways’ funding is spent on a safety and congestion budget [6]

National Highways has missed its road safety targets [7]

The Road Safety Foundation (RSF) has highlighted that targeting £2.5bn on the most dangerous roads (treating over 5,000 miles) could save 17,000 lives and serious injuries over the next 20 years [8]. As well as avoiding family tragedies, it would boost the economy while reducing pressure on hard-pressed emergency services and the NHS.

There is concern that England’s National Highways is failing to deliver safer roads in line with its targets [9]. It has also seemingly abandoned its target to achieve zero harm by 2040. This is despite it claiming that safety is its number one priority [10].

TAN is calling on National Highways to scrap spending on grandiose major road enhancements such as the A66 that would only treat 17 miles of road for £1.5bn. If the same £1.5bn was invested across England along the lines of the RSF safety programme, 3,500 miles of roads could be treated instead. This would save 10,000 lives and serious injuries over the next 20 years [11], having 300 times the impact of the A66 [12].

TAN has written a joint letter with the Transport & Health Science Group (THSG) to Minister for the Future of Roads Lilian Greenwood MP this week, making this very point about how the £1.5bn for the A66 could be better invested [13].

Chris Todd Director of TAN, said:

“Road safety is a neglected issue in transport. Everyone claims it’s a top priority, but then refuses to fund it properly. Their words are all spin with no care for the lives destroyed. Nowhere is this seen more starkly than with England’s National Highways. Despite its failure to reduce deaths and serious injuries in line with its targets, this taxpayer owned company refuses to redirect funding to address safety. Instead it promotes grandiose road expansions on safety grounds when their impact is marginal.

“We need a more honest conversation about road safety. Those in charge need to be held accountable for their inaction to reduce deaths and serious injuries. They are responsible for a road network where thousands are being killed and seriously injured every year. They now need to put their money where their mouth is. With the amount of money that the DfT has been allocated, there is more than enough to reduce the carnage on our roads.”

– ENDS –

Notes for editors

[1] TAN helps communities press for better (more sustainable) transport. We support more investment in bus and rail services and active travel. To enable this and better roads maintenance (fewer potholes) we continue to oppose the previous government’s damaging roads programme. We also support better integration between transport and planning.

[2] In last week’s spending review, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves MP said she was: Providing £24 billion of capital funding between 2026-27 and 2029-30 to maintain and improve motorways and local roads across the country. This funding increase will allow National Highways and local authorities to invest in significantly improving the long-term condition of England’s road network, delivering faster, safer and more reliable journeys Spending Review 2025, para 5.82. She said it was now down to the DfT to deploy that funding. Roads policy and funding are mostly devolved matters for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

[3] See Brake website – see drop down that gives totals for each country. Note the figures quoted above are average figures.

[4] National Highways planning application showed (Table 7.7) the Lower Thames Crossing would actually increase collisions, causing 26 more fatalities, 182 serious injuries, and 2,464 slight injuries – over the 60 year appraisal period. It is also worth noting that National Highways’ modelling did not consider induced demand for lorries, so these figures are likely to be an underestimate.

[5] A66 Northern Trans-Pennine Project: 3.7 Transport Assessment, National Highways, June 2022, Table 9.9 Cobalt Assessment Results: Casualties Saved – shows how casualties increase in the existing dual carriageway sections. This is without proper modelling of the high numbers of HGVs.

[6] When National Highways’ £27bn budget for the 2020-25 road investment strategy (RIS2) was announced, just £140 million (0.5%) was allocated for a “designated fund” covering not just safety but “Safety and Congestion”

[7] Third annual assessment of safety performance on the strategic road network

[8] Road Safety Foundation’s (RSF) report ‘Driving Change: Investing in Safer Roads’ which mapped crash risks on Great Britain’s motorways and ‘A’ roads in 2024. Data taken from Table 2, page 6.

[9] See TAN’s National Highways Watch blog: Road safety record is a car crash

[10] National Highways’ Annual report and accounts 2024, page 7 (A message from our Chief Executive)

[11] Figures derived pro rata from Table 2, page 6 of Road Safety Foundation’s (RSF) report ‘Driving Change: Investing in Safer Roads’

[12] A66 Northern Trans-Pennine Project: 3.7 Transport Assessment, National Highways, June 2022, Table 9.9 Cobalt Assessment Results: Casualties Saved. Note figures in this table are for a 60 year appraisal period so need dividing by three for a 20 year period, which gives 31 deaths and serious injuries saved. This is three hundred less times effective than investing in low cost safety measures as outline by the RSF.

[13] Joint letter with THSG to Lilian Greenwood MP, Minister for Future of Roads, 16 June, 2025

Photo: Shutterstock.com