Filling the holes

Rachel Reeves might have a huge hole in the country’s finances to plug, but road users are rightly concerned about the large number of potholes that need filling. The latest findings from the RAC’s annual survey shows that the majority of drivers are fed up with the state of Britain’s roads. This was the top concern, with 56% of drivers flagging this as an issue. Cost of insurance was second, while the cost of fuel dropped to third place. Further down the list, the poor state of Britain’s motorways and dual carriageways also came in for criticism. This was up from last year.

None of this comes as any surprise. The poor state of our roads has been regularly highlighted by many commentators, including the road users’ watchdog, Transport Focus, who regularly report it as the number one priority for road users. This year the total backlog in local road and bridge maintenance was reckoned to be £23bn (£16.3bn for local roads and £6.7bn for bridge maintenance). Often the rises in funding for local maintenance, announced with much fanfare by politicians, have been wiped out by inflation.

The state of the strategic road network, managed by National Highways, is considered to be a little better, but concern is growing about that too. According to National Highways’ latest annual report, its programme of maintenance and renewal was only kept on track by diverting funding from stalled new road schemes (such as A303 Stonehenge – now cancelled).

Recognising the problem

Labour, or course, recognised the problem when it promised to delay the A27 Arundel Bypass and put the money saved towards repairing potholes. However, this was seen as a bit of a gimmick as it would only have raised an extra £330m for maintenance when tens of billions are required. That cash has now gone too, with the scrapping of the bypass by Rachel Reeves to help fill the budget black hole she discovered upon taking office.

While Rishi Sunak promised an extra £8bn for roads maintenance after 2025, in redirected funds from his HS2 cancellation, it is not clear whether Labour will follow suit. With the finances in such a bad state and also having made big promises to improve the rail network in the north, it’s doubtful they could afford to without making cuts elsewhere.

Finding solutions

Indeed, Labour needs to find solutions that not only address the funding deficit, but also stop making things worse, whilst tackling the roads maintenance backlog. This includes the appalling state of many pavements and cycle routes. One simple measure would be to immediately cancel the most expensive road schemes, with little economic benefit, such as the £10bn Lower Thames Crossing and the £1.5bn A66 Northern Trans-Pennine. This would provide cash for reducing both the maintenance backlog and budget deficit.

Cancelling these and other schemes would also reduce long term maintenance costs. Both these schemes would increase the number of HGVs on our roads, reducing safety and speeding up the deterioration of road surfaces. So their cancellation would deliver wider economic benefits.

As Louise Haigh carries out her transport infrastructure review, these are exactly the sorts of issues she will need to grapple with. The question is who will be advising her? If it is National Highways, the concern will be about the quality and reliability of the information it provides. It has been caught out too many times misleading the public. It is also a body focussed on delivering 20th century road schemes, so it is hardly well placed to advise on the solutions needed for the 21st century with the huge challenges and uncertainty we face.

The question is, while Labour cannot afford to keep building these poor value road schemes, can it afford to ignore roads (and pavement) maintenance? After all, it’s not just about drivers, but people walking and cycling, or taking the bus, are also suffering the consequences of years of neglect.