With no government funding outlined for post-2025, the chair of the UK Roads Board has warned that financial uncertainty is making asset management 'incredibly challenging'.
A report for his council by James Bailey, UK Roads Board Chairman and the assistant director for highways and the built county at Staffordshire County Council, states: 'Clearly there is much uncertainty around future funding levels which makes financial planning for a long-term asset incredibly challenging.
‘This lack of clarity over future funding levels has been raised with ministers and local MPs and will continue to feature in the council's financial lobbying messages.’
Mr Bailey’s report states: ‘Despite the additional investment from the County Council, overall, the current budget is insufficient to maintain the asset in its current condition.’
Staffordshire CC has said it will invest an extra £50m invested over the next three years in maintaining and improving its highway network years, on top of any grant given by government.
David Williams, cabinet member for highways and transport, (pictured) said: ‘This includes more road resurfacing schemes and getting potholes repaired quicker.
‘The investment will enable 34 road reconstruction schemes to be carried out, including the resurfacing of junctions/roundabouts at key locations into our towns, 1.5 million square metres of preventative surface treatments and £2.75m of work to repair highway drainage.’
He added: ‘However, there is still more to be done, and we continue to lobby central Government for funding to keep Staffordshire’s roads in the condition we expect and ensure local communities and businesses can feel the benefits of an improved network.’
The report by Mr Bailey is to be considered by the council’s cabinet next week. It shows Department for Transport Maintenance Element capital funding falling from £32.7m this year to £28.3m in 2024-25, with the loss of the one-off top-up to Pothole Fund cash.
The council has also received an additional £3.2m ‘Network North’ cash this year and next. It has increased its own capital funding from £15m to £21.4m, increasing total capital investment from £51m to £53m next year, a figure that falls back to £43.5m for each of the two following years.
Similarly, highways programme capital resources are set to rise from £35.3m to £39.3m next year, before falling back to £30.7m for each of the next two years.
The figures for these two years are based on what is stated to be an assumption that both core DfT funding and additional Network North cash remain at 2023-24 levels. This reflects the fact that the DfT has not set the funding levels beyond 2024-25.
Mr Williams said the funding put in by the council ‘will allow us to repair and maintain more roads, and keep our network in a good state of repair for residents and commuters’.
