Minister urges construction industry to prepare for £24 billion road investment
Companies asked to get ready for increase in workloads ahead of the road network's biggest investment since the 1970s.
Roads Minister Robert Goodwill has today (10 February 2014) called on Britain’s road building companies to get ready for a massive increase in work ahead of the biggest investment in the road network since the 1970s.
The government is tripling funding on the road network over the next 8 years with more than £24 billion to be spent on upgrading and improving the network until 2021. By the end of the next parliament, the government will be spending £3 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.
Graphic from the 'Transforming England's strategic road network' leaflet. Graphic displays the investment in yearly amounts including spending rounds of October 2010, November 2011, December 2012, June 2013 and pre-October 2010.
Roads Minister Robert Goodwill said:
Funding certainty is critical to the construction industry in planning for the future and that is exactly what the government has delivered – with £24 billion secure investment over 6 years and £50 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% increase in traffic over the coming decades that will help boost economy growth and deliver more efficient roads for motorists.
Along with investing £10.7 billion in major improvements for our strategic roads from 2015 to 2020/21, the government is also investing £6.1 billion in resurfacing 80% of the strategic network, with another £6 billion being spent on tackling potholes on local authority roads. The funding announced in the 2013 Spending Review along with the Department for Transport’s ‘Action for Roads’ - a command paper that sets out the long-term vision for the road network from 2015 - will provide contractors with the security to make commercial decisions based on long-term funding.
Find out what else the government is doing to support and grow the UK economy
The reforms will also see the Highways Agency turned into a government-owned company, helping to improve commercial efficiency and cut running costs. Road users are set to benefit from a more effective road network and will have a greater say in how their roads operate, with taxpayers expected to benefit from savings of at least £2.6 billion over the next 10 years. The consultation on the changes to the Highways Agency has now closed and a response will be published in the near future.
Further information on how the road network is being transformed is available on GOV.UK.
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