This year’s Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance (ALARM) survey reports early signs that an increase in local authority highway maintenance budgets is beginning to stem the decline in the condition of the local road network.
Nevertheless, increased investment is still falling short of the amount needed to maintain local roads to target conditions, with years of underfunding leading to a local road network on the edge and a one-time catch-up cost which continues to rise.
For the second consecutive year, ALARM reports that local authorities’ highway maintenance budgets have increased by almost 20 per cent. For councils in England and London this included a share of £420 million additional funding allocated in the November 2018 Budget.