Highways England is performing well but has areas for improvement, finds regulator

ORR, which is the official Monitor of Highways England, found that the company is meeting its targets to keep traffic flowing while delivering its programme of major improvements. It is continuing to focus on improving safety and is delivering a comprehensive health and safety plan. And it is starting to carry out its work more efficiently, making savings of £169m over the last two years.

The Annual Assessment notes however that Highways England narrowly missed its targets on road user satisfaction and network condition for 2016-17. Road user satisfaction was 89.1 per cent against a target of 90 per cent, down from 89.3 per cent last year. The percentage of road in good condition was 94.3 per cent, against a target of 95 per cent. ORR will closely monitor the company’s plans to improve performance in these areas over the next year.

Highways England is improving its planning of major improvement schemes – a key recommendation of ORR’s last annual assessment and its Update Report in February 2017. The proposed changes aim to reduce disruption to road users and ease delivery constraints. They have the potential to give the company’s suppliers a more evenly spread timetable of work and should help to deliver future efficiency targets.

ORR has reviewed a sample of Highways England’s major schemes and carried out an in-depth review of how the company manages its assets. These reviews identified areas of good practice, but also opportunities for improvement. The company has engaged well with the reviews and committed to actions to address the issues raised.

Highways England now needs to improve its processes to show that it is delivering the right maintenance and renewals works to keep the network in good condition. It should also schedule work on its assets more evenly through the year.

Commenting on the report, Anthony Smith, chief executive of Transport Focus, said:

“Road users tell us that they want more predictable journey times.  Delivering this and managing roadworks effectively should be a future focus to deliver a road network that users want.  Our research – the National Road Users’ Satisfaction Survey – showed road users of motorways and major ‘A’ roads gave them a satisfaction rating just below the 90 per cent target at 89.1 per cent. It is reassuring to see that the Office of Rail and Road assess Highways England is performing well but need to improve their planning of road works.”