Skip to main content

Government triples road funding

The UK government is tripling funding on the road network over the next eight years with more than US$40 billion to be spent on upgrading and improving the network until 2021. By the end of the next parliament, the government will be spending US$5 billion each year on improvements and maintenance for the strategic network alone. This locked-in funding commitment will support nearly 30,000 new jobs across the construction sector and at the same time deliver a safer, more sustainable road network that is fit
February 12, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
The UK government is tripling funding on the road network over the next eight years with more than US$40 billion to be spent on upgrading and improving the network until 2021. By the end of the next parliament, the government will be spending US$5 billion each year on improvements and maintenance for the strategic network alone. This locked-in funding commitment will support nearly 30,000 new jobs across the construction sector and at the same time deliver a safer, more sustainable road network that is fit for the 21st century and beyond.

Roads Minister Robert Goodwill called on Britain’s road building companies to get ready for a massive increase in work. He said: “Funding certainty is critical to the construction industry in planning for the future and that is exactly what the government has delivered – with US$40 billion secure investment over six years and US$83 billion for the strategic road network over the next 15 years. However, we need to make sure everyone is ready to deliver the massive programme of investment that we need to keep Britain’s roads moving.

“To do that, we need to make sure we have the right people and equipment in place to deliver the 53 road schemes in preparation right now, plus the next generation of improvements over the next 7 years. This means taking on more apprentices and making sure suppliers have the capacity to deal with the increase in demand. If we get this right, this will provide road users with a high performing network that can cope with the expected 43 per cent increase in traffic over the coming decades that will help boost economy growth and deliver more efficient roads for motorists.”

Related Content

  • July 23, 2015
    Over US$2.3 billion of investment awarded to upgrade motorways in England
    Highways England has appointed six joint-venture companies to design and build ten smart motorways across England as part of a US$2.3 billion investment. Three of these projects will start in autumn this year: two in the Midlands on the M1 J19 to J16 in Northamptonshire and the M5 J4a to J6 in Worcestershire, and one in the north-west on the M6 J16 to J19 near Stoke-on-Trent. The smart motorway schemes, part of the US$23 billion government investment Highways England is delivering between now and 2021
  • October 22, 2018
    The long road to Spanish enlightenment
    Julián Núñez, immediate past president of ASECAP, gets his teeth into the vision of a European strategy for toll roads. David Arminas reports from Madrid. Getting European politicians to agree to a long-term cross-border highway infrastructure programme for toll roads is extremely difficult. It’s a bit like pulling teeth: people want to avoid the pain. But pain is something that Spanish operators, including Abertis, OHL, ACS, FCC and Acciona, have been going through for the past decade. The country has
  • June 13, 2013
    RAC report - motorists frustrated with road taxes
    According to the RAC’s 2013 Report on Motoring, the condition of the UK’s motorways and local roads, characterised by the now year-round problem of potholes, ranks as a top concern for motorists. While the cost of driving is understandably still the number one concern for nearly half (46 per cent) of Britain’s motorists, two in five (41 per cent) say maintenance of local roads and motorways is their top spending priority. In addition, 84 per cent of motorists believe their local roads are deteriorating and
  • April 17, 2015
    CEF funds to be used for EFSI ‘only as a last resort’
    Parts of the European Commission’s proposals for the European Fund for Strategic Investments, which foresee the reallocation of US$3.5 billion from the Connecting Europe Facility to provide a part of the US$17 billion for the guarantee fund should be deleted, Transport MEPs suggested in their opinion approved on Tuesday. This target amount should instead be met by gradual budgetary commitments to the guarantee fund to be decided in the frame of the annual budgetary procedure, they add. Instead of cuttin