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Eleven-year road surfacing project worth £8.3 billion announced

27 November 2023

The Department for Transport (DfT) has allocated £8.3 billion for ‘biggest ever’ road resurfacing programme which aims to cover more than 5,000 miles of road across England over the next 11 years.

Local authorities will each receive £150 million this financial year, which will be used to identify and immediately improve areas with poor road surfaces, followed by a further £150m for 2024/2025. The rest of the funding will be allocated each year to 2034.

Each local authority will be required to publish information on their website regularly to explain how they are spending the funding in their area, for transparency.

The funding will be divided as follows:

• £3.3bn for the North West, North East and Yorkshire and Humber.
• £2.2bn for West Midlands and East Midlands.
• £2.8bn for the East of England, South East, South West and London. 

RAC head of policy Simon Williams said, “The fact the Government has found a significant additional pot of revenue should give councils the certainty of funding they need to plan proper long-term road maintenance.

“We hope local authorities will use the money in the most effective way possible by resurfacing the very worst roads, keeping those in reasonable condition in better states for longer through surface dressing, and filling potholes as permanently as possible wherever necessary.

“This should in time go a considerable way to bringing our roads back to a fit-for-purpose state and saving drivers hundreds of pounds in the process from not having to fork out for frustrating repairs to their vehicles.”

The 2023 Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance (ALARM) survey, published in March by the Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA) estimated that 49 per cent of local roads (representing more than 100,000 miles of road surface) would need to be entirely rebuilt within the next 15 years, if left unmaintained.

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