I wish to update the House on the Government’s work to improve the condition of local roads and the steps we are taking to ensure that record levels of investment deliver real benefits for communities.
The Government are committed to tackling the poor state of our roads. This financial year we have provided an additional £500 million for local highways maintenance, and have at the autumn Budget confirmed a record investment of £7.3 billion for the next four years, covering the period of 2026-27 to 2029-30. This funding increase and the provision of long-term funding certainty are designed to enable local authorities to invest in significantly improving the long-term condition of England’s road and local highways network, delivering safer and more reliable journeys.
To ensure increases in funding drive improvements, we now require local highway authorities to publish transparency reports setting out their maintenance plans. These reports allow residents and taxpayers to see how funding is being used and help us monitor progress. The first reports were published in June 2025.
Based on our assessments of these reports, my Department yesterday published red amber green (RAG) ratings for each local highway authority, assessing the quality of local roads and progress against key aspects of local highways management. These overall ratings are supported by three underlying scorecards, measuring local road condition, the level of capital spend on highways maintenance and the extent to which local authorities have adopted best practice in highways management.
The aim of these ratings is to provide an evidence- based picture of local highways maintenance practices and outcomes to support improvements across the sector. They are designed to recognise and highlight good practice —for example in relation to preventative maintenance so that potholes do not form in the first place—while also helping the Department to identify where local authorities need to improve, and where more targeted support to local authorities may help them adopt best practice and improve road condition nationwide.
We recognise that historic underfunding has meant that local authorities have not necessarily had the resources or tools available to maintain roads in the way that they would want to. So a lower rating does not necessarily reflect a lack of local ambition. Where authorities face particular challenges, we will offer targeted support, including peer reviews by sector experts. This is alongside wider resources such as the Live Labs 2 highways innovation programme which we have extended into 2026-27 to enable further uptake of the programme’s findings, and our update of the code of practice for well-managed highways, which will be published later this year.
These ratings will be updated annually, and so, over time, will provide evidence of the impact of the Government’s increased and long-term investment into local highways and of local authorities’ efforts in maintaining their networks.
These measures—increased and long-term funding certainty, improved evidence of local progress through our ratings, and more targeted support to local authorities —are intended to work together. They are part of the Government plan to improve the condition of our local roads and highways, ensuring that communities can benefit from safer, smoother and more reliable journeys.
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