Stuart Anderson, South Shropshire’s Conservatives Parliamentary Candidate, has welcomed a £153 million boost for local highways maintenance in Shropshire. It is part of the ‘Network North’ additional allocations announced by the Prime Minister on 4 October 2023, covering the years up to and including 2033 to 2034 - providing long-term certainty to the Council and helping to prevent potholes from coming back in the future. It means that the Council will be able to identify what local roads are in most need of repair and deliver immediate improvements for communities and residents in the area.
Shropshire will receive £2.6 million this financial year, followed by a further £2.6 million for 2024/2025, with the rest of the funding allocated through to 2034. The funding is in addition to £22 million local transport funding from the last Spending Review, published in October 2021, as well as the extra £3.6 million that Shropshire was expecting in the future, as set out in the Budget earlier this year. These funds can also help to boost road safety and encourage active travel, as smoother road surfaces will make it safer and easier for cyclists to use roads with greater confidence. The allocations are based on the road length and the number of bridges and street lighting columns that the Council is responsible for maintaining. This reflects the Government’s advocacy of risk-based whole lifecycle asset management approach to highways maintenance programmes which considers all parts of the network, such as bridges, cycleways, and lighting columns – and not just the fixing of potholes.
Overall, the Government is investing £8.3 billion of additional funding for local road resurfacing and wider maintenance activity on the local highway network. The redirected HS2 funding is enough to resurface more than 5,000 miles of road across the country over the next 11 years. Allocated across the next 11 years, it will represent an increase of around two-thirds in Department for Transport (DfT) support for local roads. It’s one of the key cornerstones of Network North to improve journeys for all. According to the RAC, smoother, well-maintained road surfaces could save drivers up to £440 each in expensive vehicle repairs from pothole damage - helping motorists keep more of the cash in their pocket. Councils will be required to publish information on their websites on a regular basis explaining how they are spending the funding in the area.
Stuart Anderson said: “I am delighted that Shropshire is set to benefit from this £150 million boost for local highways maintenance. As a rural area, the long-term funding arrangement will provide us with the certainty that we need to plan and deliver consistent upgrades across the county, based upon local knowledge, circumstances, and priorities - enabling driving to become smoother, safer, and easier. With positive knock-on effects for active travel, it will benefit all passengers.”
Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, said: “For too long politicians have shied away from taking the right long-term decisions to make life easier for hardworking families – tackling the scourge of potholes being a prime example. Well-maintained road surfaces could save drivers up to £440 each in expensive vehicle repairs, helping motorists keep more of the cash in their pocket. This unprecedented £8.3 billion investment will pave the road for better and safer journeys for millions of people across the country and put an end to the blight of nuisance potholes.”
Transport Secretary, Mark Harper, said: “Most people travel by road and potholes can cause misery for motorists, from expensive vehicle repairs to bumpy, slow and dangerous journeys. Our £8.3 billion boost to repair roads across the country shows that we’re on the side of drivers. Today’s biggest-ever funding uplift for local road improvements is a victory for all road users, who will enjoy smoother, faster and safer trips – as we use redirected HS2 funding to make the right long-term decisions for a brighter future.”
Network North will see £36 billion invested in hundreds of transport projects and initiatives across the country, and includes the extension of the £2 bus fare cap in England to the end of December 2024, as well as over £1 billion to improve bus journeys in the North and the Midlands.
