HC Deb 08 December 1952 vol 509 c5W
Mr. Harold Davies

asked the Minister of Transport the amount of money spent on the reconstruction, upkeep and making of roads in Britain, in each year since 1938.

Mr. Lennox-Boyd

The available figures of expenditure on public highways are contained in the Reports on the Administration of the Road Fund for the years 1945–46 to 1950–51. The report for 1945–46 contains figures for 1938–39 and, in Appendix I on page 12, the only figures available for the war years, which relate to the payments made by my Department from the Road Fund towards maintenance, improvement and new construction of trunk and classified roads. These figures do not include expenditure by local highway authorities, who bear the whole cost of work on unclassified roads and a proportion of the cost of work on classified roads. I am sending copies of the reports to the hon. Member. The report for 1951–52 will be laid before Parliament this week.