A report from the House of Commons’ Public Accounts Committee has labelled the condition of local roads in England a “national embarrassment.” The committee is a group of MPs responsible for overseeing the value for money and services from government programmes. It called out the Department for Transport for its failure in its responsibility to take care of local roads.
“The state of England’s local roads is declining,” it said, adding that “the DfT neither knows exactly how authorities spend its funding, as it is not ring-fenced, nor what it wants to achieve with it”.
A failure to take policy and the use of taxpayer funds “sufficiently seriously,” looking at 183,000 miles of local roads all over England. That’s 98% of the total network.
The DfT, it added, has insufficient knowledge of the condition of the local road network. Its approach to funding their maintenance, it said, is too focused on short-term repairs.
The report came after the National Audit Office (NAO) reported that the government “does not know” whether £1.6 billion of taxpayer money has actually made any difference to the condition of roads in England.
The DfT, according to the NAO, does not have enough understanding of the condition of local roads in the country, and does not provide adequate funding to local authorities “as effectively as possible.”
“The declining state of England’s local roads is a national embarrassment,” said Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, The Public Accounts Committee’s chairman and Conservative MP for the North Cotswolds. “As well as harming the prospects for our economy and communities’ own social wellbeing, highways riddled with potholes pose an increasing safety threat to road users.
“Alarmingly, however, not only is the state of our local roads on the downslope, [but also] our inquiry shows government are having to find out about these issues from industry bodies and road users themselves, due to their own patchy data.”
Stay tuned to EyeOnLondon for the latest news and expert opinions.
Follow us on:
Subscribe to our YouTube channel for the latest videos and updates!
We value your thoughts! Share your feedback and help us make EyeOnLondon even better!
