Road Maintenance (Hansard, 30 March 1999)

§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (Lord Whitty)
My Lords, discussions between my department and local government associations took place last summer on the standard spending assessment formulae, including the one for highways maintenance. Those formulae are used to allocate revenue support grant. Capital structural maintenance of local authority A roads is funded through the transport supplementary grant. Local authority bids are submitted to my department after discussions between local authorities and Government Office officials in the regions.

§ Lord Islwyn
My Lords, as 94 per cent. of passenger traffic and 91 per cent. of freight within the United Kingdom is moved by road, does the Minister agree that if we are to build an efficient and competitive economy, the highest priority must be given to the maintenance of our road network? Does the Minister recognise that there is a major shortfall in the maintenance of local roads? Can the Government make adequate funds available, besides enforcing a form of ring-fencing, to ensure that that vital work is carried out?

§ Lord Whitty
My Lords, my noble friend is clearly right. The majority of both private and commercial traffic is carried on roads in this country. We intend to achieve a modal shift so that more freight is carried on the railways. However, even if we achieve the target set by the Government and the freight operators of a threefold increase in freight on the railways, 70 per cent. will still be carried by road. Therefore, it is important that we maintain adequate highways, particularly trunk roads.
The roads review has allocated substantially greater resources to maintenance and there are great improvements in techniques. As far as local roads are concerned, an extra £276 million has been allocated, over the three-year period to revenue maintenance, and capital maintenance for roads and bridges has increased this year by over one-third. So we are providing additional resources.

§ Lord Brabazon of Tara
My Lords, given that the Government intend to transfer 40 per cent. of the trunk 197 road network to the control of local authorities, can the Minister give the House an assurance that sufficient funds will flow from the Government to local authorities to maintain those roads and, more importantly, that local authorities actually spend that money on road maintenance and not on other things?

§ Lord Whitty
My Lords, we intend to de-trunk roughly 40 per cent. of the non-motorway network, as the noble Lord said. The de-trunking will take place in negotiation with local authorities and will include a financial allocation. We have indicated that in the comprehensive spending review period that should consist both of an adjustment to the SSA and, where appropriate, capital grants.
Road maintenance has never been hypothecated. However, it is a myth that there is serious underspending. The variation has been less than 2 per cent. between the assumption and the actual expenditure of local authorities. Therefore, we are not inclined to move down the hypothecation avenue. We believe that we should leave such decisions to local authorities.

§ Lord Berkeley
My Lords, does the Minister agree that, given the Government's policy of devolution and, therefore, subsidiarity, their objective in the long-term should be for local authorities to make their own decisions on how to allocate finance, be it for local road maintenance or anything else? While I accept that they should be given adequate money to spend on all their resources, does he agree that ring-fencing for particular matters, such as the maintenance of local roads, is not the way forward?

§ Lord Whitty
Yes, my Lords, our whole approach is to give greater choice to local authorities to make their own decisions in the light of their own priorities. However, major capital maintenance, like other capital projects, is subject to local transport plans and therefore to earmarking by the Government.

§ Baroness Carnegy of Lour
My Lords, does the Minister agree that the noble Lord, Lord Berkeley, is absolutely right? The more that the Government ring-fence other amounts of local authority expenditure—for example, education expenditure, which is a large part of local government spending—the less flexibility local authorities have to make up their own minds? Roads matter very much to local people, as does education. If the Government continue in this manner, soon there will not be any point in being a member of a local authority.

§ Lord Whitty
My Lords, in terms of restriction of local authority decisions. I am tempted to make a party political point about the past 18 years, but I shall refrain. This Government's policy is to ensure that local authorities make their own decisions. The financial regime is moving in that direction. We are examining the SSA process beyond the period of the current comprehensive spending review in order to achieve that.

§ Lord Elton
My Lords, as one who shed the chain off a brand-new bicycle going into a pothole in Regent 198 Street on the first day of riding it, may I ask the Minister whether he is aware that the question may not be hypothecated, but it is certainly not hypothetical? As a Minister in a government who believe in reducing the use of fuel, is the noble Lord aware that a pothole, which is negligible to a lorry driver, inconvenient to a motorist, and a danger to a cyclist, can kill a motorcyclist?

§ Lord Whitty
Yes, my Lords, that may well be the case in certain circumstances. In our guidance to local authorities—I believe that the noble Lord was referring to a local authority road—we make it clear that one of their priorities must be the safety of all road users.

§ Lord Geddes
My Lords, I wonder whether for my benefit, and perhaps that of other Members of your Lordships' House, the Minister can define "local roads" in the context of this Question?

§ Lord Whitty
My Lords, as I understand it, my noble friend's Question relates to roads which are run by local highways authorities rather than by the Highways Agency in England.